Incineration of EV Lithium-ion batteries as a pretreatment for recycling – Determination of the potential formation of hazardous by-products and effects on metal compounds

Environmental impacts, pollution sources and pathways of spent lithium-ion batteries

“…Large LIBs are typically transported by professional services once removed from EVs 18 , however, their health status is usually unknown. If internally damaged, they are in slow thermal runaway and hence remain unnoticed for a long time, after which they may either burst into flames or they release gases and droplets of solvent, the "white vapour", composed of toxic and explosive gases [19][20][21][22][23][24] . These events may take place during transportation, storage, recycling or landfilling.…”

“…The hazards of damaged LIBs are in addition to conventional landfill fires, which produce a mixture of toxic gases and smoke 77,93 consisting of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) [94][95][96] , dioxins/furans [97][98][99][100][101] , volatile organic compounds (VOCs) 102,103 , heavy metals 104,105 polychlorinated biphenyls or organochlorine pesticides 104 and finally, particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm 106,107 . Subsurface fires favour the generation of harmful gases such as CO, SO 2 or H 2 S 77 -some of these gases are also generated within burning batteries [19][20][21][22][23][24] . Landfill fires do not only affect the air around the site as the…”

“…It is now apparent that thermal runaway generates a white vapour within the cells, essentially independent of chemistry, form factor and manufacturer 139 . This white vapour contains H 2 , SO 2 , NO 2 , HF, HCl, CO, CO 2 , droplets of organic solvent (giving the white colour) and a large range of small chain alkanes and alkenes [19][20][21][22][23][24] . The exact composition of the white vapour appears to depend on the State of Charge (SoC) and battery chemistry 19,142,209,210 .…”

Early-Stage Recovery of Lithium from Tailored Thermal Conditioned Black Mass Part I: Mobilizing Lithium via Supercritical CO2-Carbonation

“…CO2 was only used in [73]. The performed reductive roasting reportedly also contributes to the carbonation of lithium by precipitating it from the black mass matrix [19,70,72,74,76].…”

“…In terms of chemical reactions involving lithium phases, only a few data are given, mostly based on thermodynamic simulations [76][77][78]. Nonetheless, gas-solid reactions are known, e.g., from CO2 absorbing for air purification.…”