YouTuber JerryRigEverything took a video tour of a factory that recycles old batteries. The video blogger learned what they do with old electric vehicle batteries… and kept quiet about the most interesting part.
Any batteries, whether they are finger batteries or electric vehicle batteries, are very toxic. For example, if a battery leaks on the ground, any vegetation on that piece of land will disappear for many years.
Therefore, batteries need to be recycled. Especially since they contain literally the entire periodic table, or rather, its most attractive part – precious gold and palladium, rare and hard-earned lithium and cobalt, phosphates and much more. Except that they don’t have uranium. But how to separate this whole mixture in an economically viable way? This question remains a serious challenge for technologists.
Recycling in one-two-three
At the factory Jerry visited, this task is accomplished in several steps, one of which involves immersing the batteries in a proprietary solution. No, they are not dissolved, but the solution helps to separate all the cells into three groups.
Step 1. Grinding
Batteries from electric cars of all brands, from Nissan to Tesla, gadgets, and garden and construction power tools are piled into one pile.
Step 2. Division into large fractions
In the solution, all the fragments separate: polymer ones iceland number data float to the surface, metal shavings sink to the bottom, and other elements combine with the solution, forming an emulsion.
This allows you to collect plastic and metals into separate containers.
Step 3. Push-ups
An emulsion containing lithium, cobalt, and nickel is pressed in a powerful press, producing a black mass that resembles clay in consistency.
Each fraction will be sent for further processing.
The tour ends here. It's a shame, because the most interesting part is just beginning. Dividing the same "black mass" into elements, and then cleaning them so they can be used again, is a titanic technological task.
The factory owner, Li-Cycle, claims that its technology allows up to 95% of the original materials to be returned to production. Without specifying how exactly they measure it: by total weight or each one separately. It should be understood that extracting 1 kilogram of lithium from waste is much more important than 10 kilograms of iron.
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