Recycling and material recovery
Pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy and direct recycling.
You'll learn
- Explain recycling and material recovery at engineering level
- Read the numbers that define the behaviour
- Apply the idea to a real pack
Overview
A lithium battery is a concentrated ore. Recovering nickel, cobalt, lithium and copper is both an environmental necessity and increasingly a good business.
In depth
Recycling routes
| Pyrometallurgy | Hydrometallurgy | Direct | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Process | Smelting | Acid leaching | Cathode relithiation |
| Lithium recovery | Poor | Good | Excellent |
| Energy use | High | Moderate | Low |
| Maturity | Mature | Scaling | Pilot |
Quiz
Recycling check
- 1
Which route recovers lithium best?
Key takeaways
Remember this
- Batteries are recyclable and increasingly recycled.
- Hydrometallurgy dominates today; direct recycling is the goal.
- Recycled content requirements are becoming law.
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