Supplementary information to the publication “Influence of foam composite in lithium-ion battery packs on their mechanical recycling”

Supplementary data to the following paper.
Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) make an important contribution to the energy transition as energy storage devices for mobile and stationary applications. The recovery of the valuable materials contained in the lithium-ion batteries after their end of life is of central importance for the development of a circular economy in line with the concept of sustainability. Mechanical recycling is to be seen as a first step in this process.
With processes for the mechanical recycling of LIB that have already been successfully developed and implemented, it is possible to recover most components of a LIB i.e., the materials of the anode, cathode and separator foils as well as the casing. The concentrate of the coating of the electrode foils, which is called black mass, becomes an intermediate product for hydrometallurgical recycling processes for the recovery of lithium, among other materials.
Some OEM of the automotive industry are about to introduce cell-to-pack-technologies, in which individual LIB-cells are fixed and stabilised in their position inside the large battery pack with the aid of a foam material, thereby adding further materials to the battery pack. The effects of the foam on the recycling are not known yet. Within the scope of this experimental work, several technological variants to enrich and separate the foam as an individual material fraction were investigated. The holistic aim is to minimise contamination from the foam in the valuable fractions. Two different types of foam and their effect on the purity of the recycling products were analysed.