Recycling of graphite from

spent LIBs.

By Dilshan S. Premathilake

Supervisor: Prof. Mentore Vaccari

Work in progress @ RMB
Objective of the study: Low cost extraction of graphite from spent LIBs
Battery type used: NMC type Li-ion Battery module (Panda Hybrid car battery)
Assembly date: 2019/04/29
 Work in progress @ RMB cont.
Manual
Manual dismantling of Heating with Recovering of
Discharging dismantling of
the battery CaO graphite
modules

Plastic housing of the Discharging of the Module casings were Anode material heated With optimized values,
battery was removed battery modules has removed manually with with CaO in the muffle above 80% of the
manually using done using 10% NaCl laboratory tools and furnace. graphite could be
hacksaws and other solution for 24 hours wrenches. recovered.
tools. Optimization of CaO
Then the cells were
amount, contact time
untangled manually
under the fume hood to
and the temperature
take the anode material was determined
out. through this step.
Dismantling of batteries

Module circuits
Battery housing

Inseparable parts

BMS

Cables

Nuts and bolts Module

Discharging

ICP results
confirmed that;

Al - 938.9 mg/L
Cu - 248.0 mg/L
10% NaCl B - 1189.0 mg/L
Mn - 800 mg/L
For 24 hrs Fe - 604 mg/L

And other metal

types in trace
before after amounts.
Module Dismantling

separators Cu electrode
material

Al electrode
material
Module cover
Cell wrapper
Graphite separation from Cu electrode
● CaO reacts with PVDF binder to decompose it to CaF2

aO
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ith
ew

d
od

in
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gr
ec

d
el

an
u
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ry
e

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th

h,

e
t

as

ev
ea

Si
H

1 2 3

● We could recover 80% of graphite using the optimized temperature, CaO amount and heating
duration.
Advantages…
● No toxic emissions as PVDF decompose to CaF2
● Less energy requirement, so an environmental friendly method
● Less waste water generation than existing methods

Further steps…
● Needs to analyse the recovered graphite using SEM, XRD and XRF for
characterizing.
● Needs to decide on leaching of Li in recovered graphite.
Work in Progress @ USP, Brazil
● Experiments use graphite recovered from NCM type LIB batteries using
Hydrometallurgical methods.
● Graphite characterization was done so far using XRD, Carbon content
analyser and Particle size analyser.
● Three types of modifications were proposed and so far, exfoliated graphite
and Graphite Oxide were prepared using the graphite.
● Further steps,
○ Graphene oxide preparation
○ Characterization of modified materials
○ Adsorption tests
Thanks for your attention..!