Lithium-ion battery recycling line

Safe Li-ion battery processing with valuable material recovery

Case study

Lithium-ion battery recycling line

A complete Li-ion battery processing line with controlled discharge, inert-atmosphere shredding and automated sorting. The line was designed for safe recovery of valuable materials (cobalt, nickel, lithium) at high throughput, with a focus on operator safety and fire prevention.

Challenges

Fire and explosion risk when handling damaged or residually charged batteries

Need for clean separation of fractions (black mass, copper, aluminium, plastic) for maximum recovery value

Strict environmental and workplace safety requirements for hazardous waste processing

The Urstag solution

Controlled discharge

Complete battery discharge system before shredding, eliminating self-ignition risk during the mechanical process.

Inert atmosphere shredding

Shredders operating under nitrogen, preventing ignition of the electrolyte and metal dust during processing.

Multi-stage sorting

Magnetic, eddy current and gravitational separation for clean fractions of black mass, copper and aluminium.

Results

The line safely recovers valuable materials from spent Li-ion batteries: black mass with high cobalt and nickel content, high-purity copper and aluminium. Inert atmosphere processing eliminates fire incidents, and the system runs continuously with minimal manual intervention.