14/12/2023
In a new study VITO researchers have tested froth flotation as a method to recover graphite anode material and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode material from an active mass (or black mass) obtained from real end-of-life LFP batteries that were collected by battery recycler ACCUREC and pre-treated (to obtain a black mass). Optimization of the process led to the recovery of graphite-rich and LFP-rich fractions and provided insights in the challenges to recover anode and cathode active materials form active mass coming from industrial scale battery recycling processes.
With these results VITO can now further optimize the recovery processes and develop direct recycling routes for the recovered active materials.
Froth flotation in action