Potential Dangers During the Handling of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Due to their high voltage, high stored energy, and reactive components, lithium-ion batteries present a specific and significant hazard potential. This especially comes into play during recycling because nearly every safety precaution of a battery system and battery cell needs to be bypassed. Because the project partners of LithoRec II spared a thermal pre-treatment step to deactivate the batteries, the hazard potential and its handling played a major role. This chapter gives an overview of the hazards associated with lithium-ion batteries and describes their role in every process step.