Separation of the Electrolyte—Thermal Drying

The recycled lithium-ion batteries are shredded to access value components for further processing. The material that has been shredded before must be dried. This is important not only because of the simplified separation of dry material, but also due to safety issues. A material loaded with electrolyte will be surrounded by a gaseous atmosphere loaded with electrolyte. Such a mixture of electrolyte and air has an environmental impact and can build an explosive atmosphere. Therefore, undried material requires gas tight as well as explosion protected equipment. Drying can be achieved by high temperature, low pressure and rinsing with inertization gas. To support process design and optimization, the influence of each parameter and advantageous parameter combinations can be determined with a flow sheet simulation. However, experimental investigations are required to verify simulation data and to identify critical aspects regarding handling of the material. This chapter discusses application and results of a flow sheet simulation as well as experimental investigations on drying.