Overview of waste lithium battery pulverising process Waste lithium battery pulverising process refers to the crushing and sorting of waste lithium batteries by physical or chemical methods to get the powder containing valuable metals. This process mainly includes pretreatment, crushing, sorting, purification and other steps. The core of the powdering process is to separate the valuable metals in the batteries efficiently and environmentally friendly, while avoiding secondary pollution.
Pre-treatment Pre-treatment is the first step in the powdering of used lithium batteries, which mainly includes discharging, dismantling and classification. Used lithium batteries usually have residual power, direct disposal may be a safety hazard, so it needs to be completely discharged by soaking in salt water or other discharge methods. The dismantling process involves separating the non-metallic parts of the battery, such as the shell, diaphragm and electrolyte, for subsequent processing. Classification is based on the type of battery (such as lithium ternary batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries, etc.) to distinguish between different recycling processes.
Crushing Crushing is the process of breaking dismantled battery materials into small particles by mechanical force. Commonly used crushing equipment includes hammer crusher, shear crusher and so on. The crushed material usually needs to be further refined to meet the requirements of the subsequent sorting.
Sorting Sorting is the process of separating the crushed materials according to their composition. Commonly used sorting methods include magnetic separation, gravity separation, flotation and so on. For example, magnetic separation can be separated out of ferromagnetic material, gravity separation can be based on density differences in the separation of different metals, and flotation is the use of surface chemical property differences in the separation of materials.
Purification Purification is the further processing of metal powders after sorting to improve their purity and recovery. Commonly used purification methods include pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. Pyrometallurgy separates metals through high-temperature smelting, while hydrometallurgy extracts metals through acid leaching, extraction, electrolysis and other chemical methods.
In the future, with the advancement of technology, the process of waste lithium battery pulverising will develop in the direction of automation, intelligence and greening. For example, the application of artificial intelligence and robotics can improve sorting efficiency, while the development of new environmentally friendly solvents can reduce chemical pollution.
