Pyrometallurgical recycling of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) has established itself as a robust process in industrial practice due to its good scalability. A major drawback of this approach is the slagging of lithium, which limits its recovery and usually requires thermal energy and large amounts of leaching reagents using a hydrometallurgical recovery process in order to accomplish a return into the material cycle. To counteract this disadvantage, the present study investigates the fine grinding behaviour of battery slags in a stirred media mill and its possibility to increase the solubility of lithium containing slag phases. As the main influencing factors, the grinding media stress energy, processing time, and the pH value were investigated. The results show that by selecting suitable fine grinding process parameters, the specific surface area of the battery slag can be increased significantly from 0.2 m/g to 55 m/g and a lithium dissolution efficiency of up to 30 % can be reached in an aqueous environment. The variation of pH value during fine grinding enables a further process improvement with a dissolution efficiency of up to 90 % at pH=4. Particularly in the context of sustainable recycling process design, fine grinding offers a notable benefit in decreasing the quantity of leaching reagents required by as much as 76 % compared to standard leaching processes.

中文翻译：

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火法电池渣细磨及其对锂溶出的影响


锂离子电池（LIB）的火法回收由于其良好的可扩展性，已成为工业实践中稳健的工艺。这种方法的一个主要缺点是锂的结渣，这限制了其回收，并且通常需要使用湿法冶金回收过程的热能和大量浸出剂才能实现返回到材料循环。为了克服这一缺点，本研究研究了电池渣在搅拌介质磨机中的细磨行为及其增加含锂渣相溶解度的可能性。作为主要影响因素，对研磨介质应力能量、处理时间和pH值进行了研究。结果表明，通过选择合适的细磨工艺参数，电池渣的比表面积可以从0.2 m/g显着提高到55 m/g，在水溶液中锂溶解效率可以达到30%。环境。精细研磨过程中 pH 值的变化可进一步改进工艺，pH=4 时溶解效率高达 90%。特别是在可持续回收工艺设计的背景下，细磨具有显着的优势，与标准浸出工艺相比，可将所需浸出试剂的数量减少多达 76%。