Quality control for the recovery of raw materials in battery recycling

The issue of battery recycling is becoming increasingly important with the more widespread use of lithium-ion batteries, especially in electromobility. Aside from environmental aspects, this is also due to economic and geopolitical factors. Recovering critical resources such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese is becoming strategically vital.

„Black mass“ is a key intermediate product in the recycling process. This is a fine-grained mixture of the active electrode materials that is left over after the shredding and separation of the housing material, separators and electrolytes. The quality of this black mass is vital to ensuring the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the entire recycling process. And it is here that elemental analysis – in particular determining carbon (C) and sulfur (S) – steps in.

Besides black mass, the determination of the carbon and sulfur content is also relevant for other intermediate products in battery recycling, including shredder material, leaching residues and graphite concentrate. It enables the quantitative determination of carbon obtained from electrolyte, binder or graphite residues, as well as from sulfur compounds such as sulphides or sulphates. This information is crucial for process control, assessing impurities and optimizing thermal or hydrometallurgical treatment steps. More information about CS analysis: inductar® CS cube