Abstract
The rapid expansion of electric vehicles, portable electronics, and renewable energy storage systems has driven significant demand for efficient and sustainable recycling of Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). For the initial process of separating a LIB cell, existing recycling methods mainly rely on chemical processes (hydro- or pyro-metallurgical method) to partially separate the components. Existing methods while effective for large-scale industrial recycling, are energy-intensive, environmentally polluting, and recovering limited valuable components, specifically lithium. A new method using mechanical approach to separate the LIBs into individual components for the initial recycling process has been proposed. Without chemical treatments or high energy for heat, the mechanical approach separates LIBs into individual components, namely, anodes, cathodes, electrolytes, separator, and current collector, and allows for downstream recovery of critical materials such as Mn, Ni, Li, Co, Al, Cu, graphite, and PE or PP polymer. As the mechanical approach is fundamentally different from the chemical approach, an evaluation of the economic and environmental viability of the mechanical approach is needed. This study presents an initial framework as a foundation to compare the difference between the chemical and mechanical processes. Future work includes identifying further processes for material separation, standardizing batch sizes, quantifying inputs and outputs, and conducting economic analyses to derive insights.