Method for optimising the amount of black mass recovered from battery elements

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for recovering the black mass (BM1) from a set of battery elements (ENS1) making up one or a plurality of batteries, the method comprising: ■ retrieving a set of battery elements (EB1, ENS1); ■ electrically discharging (DE1) the battery elements (EB1); ■ wet grinding (BR1) the battery elements (EB1) in the presence of a volume of water; ■ first drying step (SEC1) in order to induce thermal desorption of the crushed battery elements (EB2) at a controlled temperature ranging from 90° to 120°; ■ sieving (TAM1) the crushed, dried battery elements (EB2) and extracting a first amount of black mass (BM1).

Description

[0001] METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING THE RATE OF RECOVERED BLACK MASS FROM BATTERY ELEMENTS

[0002] Field of invention

[0003] The field of the invention relates to that of methods for recovering black mass from battery elements. More particularly, the field of the invention relates to methods for collecting black mass from elements comprising cells which cannot be electrically discharged in a dry environment.

[0004] State of the art

[0005] Currently, in battery recycling operations, the aim is to recover and recycle black mass. Black mass contains components such as lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and other metals present in battery electrodes. These materials are recovered and recycled for reuse in the manufacture of new batteries or in other applications.

[0006] The process of recovering black mass typically involves dumping, crushing, sorting, chemical separation, and other processes to isolate the various components. Once recovered, these materials can be purified and used as raw materials for the production of new batteries or for other industrial applications.

[0007] The discharge step is essential to secure the recycling process. Indeed, residual electricity is likely to cause fires during shredding operations. This risk can be very high due to the presence of oxygen and the evaporation of organic matter dissolved in the solvents of the battery cells. The shredding operations of battery cells, particularly metal cells, can potentially generate sparks during shredding operations. These sparks in a gaseous environment contain all the ingredients to start a fire. To limit the risk of fire, there are two techniques.

[0008] The first technique involves performing a dry discharge step using an electrical discharge when the positive and negative terminals of a battery are available. This technique can be performed in a controlled manner to ensure the effective and complete discharge of the battery cells. However, to minimize the risk of fires, it is necessary to perform this electrical discharge under vacuum by gradually extracting the organic matter as it forms. One disadvantage is that maintaining vacuum conditions is difficult. In addition, these methods are limited to certain battery cells. Indeed, they cannot be implemented or can be implemented with difficulty with small cells due to the difficulty of accessing the electrical terminals of the battery cells.

[0009] The second technique involves performing a discharge step in a humid environment by injecting a volume of water to allow electrochemical discharge of the battery elements. This discharge can also be considered as an electrolytic discharge in a humid environment. This technique aims to evacuate all residual electrical charges from the battery elements thanks to the presence of water. Generally, a salt bath is used to carry out this electrical discharge step in a humid environment. This wet process can be used to treat any type of battery, particularly batteries forming unit cells whose poles are not easily usable during a dry discharge operation.

[0010] However, the wet electrical discharge process does not guarantee complete discharge of the battery cells before crushing. The method for assessing the discharge can only be empirical and random. The bath duration must be relatively long and cannot guarantee complete discharge. As a result, it remains an obstacle to completely securing the recycling process.

[0011] Furthermore, the wet electrical discharge process does not allow sufficient yields to be obtained to recover the full reuse potential of the black mass because the water dissolves the residual powders and reduces the recovery capacity of the entire black mass that is being sought to be recovered.

[0012] There is a need to define a battery recycling process that can be addressed to any type of battery and that is optimized from the point of view of the purification efficiency of the recovered black mass and that is secure.

[0013] Summary of the invention

[0014] The invention advantageously makes it possible to secure the extraction of black mass from battery elements during recycling operations while optimizing the recovery efficiency of the quantity of black mass available within these battery elements.

[0015] According to one aspect the invention relates to a method for recovering black mass from a set of battery elements constituting one or a plurality of batteries comprising:

[0016] ■ Recovery of a set of battery elements;

[0017] ■ Electrical discharge of battery elements;

[0018] ■ Grinding of battery elements in the presence of a volume of water, known as wet grinding;

[0019] ■ First drying of the crushed battery elements at a regulated temperature between 90° and 120°;

[0020] ■ Sieving of the crushed and dried battery elements and extraction of a first quantity of black mass.

[0021] An advantage of the first drying is that it dehydrates the crushed battery cells. The dehydrated cells are more easily separable, and the removal of water increases the recovery yield of a quantity of black mass.

[0022] According to one embodiment, the first drying is carried out by means of a heating element controlled so as to maintain the temperature in the range from 90° to 120°. An advantage is to heat sufficiently to dry while avoiding a negative effect of excessive drying which could, for example, soften the plastic parts and make it more difficult to separate the parts from each other. According to one embodiment, the first drying is carried out in combination with mixing of the crushed battery elements to promote the dissociation of the battery elements from each other.

[0023] According to one embodiment, the temperature of the first drying is between 100°C and 110°C. This temperature range makes it possible to maximize the dissociation effect while eliminating the undesirable effects of softening of the plastic elements.

[0024] According to one embodiment, the first drying is carried out by means of a gas heating device or an electric heating device.

[0025] According to one embodiment, the method comprises:

[0026] ■ a step of thermal desorption of the black mass at a temperature between 350°C and 600°C, said desorption of the black mass being accompanied by gasification of the residual plastic elements in order to eliminate the residual organic matter from the collected black mass;

[0027] ■ recovery of gases from the gasification of residual plastic elements and thermal oxidation of said gases;

[0028] ■ recovery of the purified black mass.

[0029] One advantage of thermal desorption is the removal of pollutants.

[0030] According to one embodiment, the method comprises a preliminary separation step allowing battery elements to be dismantled. An advantage is to eliminate large, easily separable parts in the first instance. Another advantage is to save space, allowing for maximum crushing efficiency.

[0031] According to one embodiment, the electrical discharge step is an electrochemical and / or electrolytic discharge step carried out in a salt bath.

[0032] According to one embodiment, a first dry electrical discharge of a first set of battery elements is carried out and a second electrolytic discharge of a second set of battery elements is carried out, the two sets of discharged battery elements being brought together to be ground in the same wet grinding step. According to one embodiment, the grinding is carried out above a floater making it possible to recover the ground battery elements. An advantage is that it makes it possible to separate the ground elements according to their density immediately after grinding.

[0033] According to one embodiment, the injection of a volume of water during the grinding step is controlled to obtain a predefined humidity level at the outlet of the grinder.

[0034] According to one embodiment, the injection of a volume of water during the grinding step is controlled to obtain a humidity level of between 20% and 40%. An advantage of this humidity level is that it allows all or part of the residual electrical charges of the battery elements to be removed thanks to the presence of water while also controlling the grinding operations. According to a preferred embodiment, the controlled humidity level is 30%.

[0035] According to one embodiment, the grinding is carried out by means of a gear mill and / or a knife mill.

[0036] According to one embodiment, the grinding is carried out so as to grind in the same step battery elements comprising at least one unit cell and at least one cell module and at least one cell module pack.

[0037] According to one embodiment, the screening comprises:

[0038] ■ A first screening with a granularity between 0 and 15 mm in order to remove plastics and metal plates;

[0039] ■ A second screening with a granularity of less than 2 mm to collect residual metals and in particular collect Copper and Aluminum elements;

[0040] ■ A third sieving with a granularity between 0.1 mm and 2 mm to collect a quantity of black mass in the form of a powder.

[0041] According to one embodiment, the method further comprises:

[0042] ■ a separation of the different metals from the black mass collected in the form of powder by implementing a hydro-metallurgical process; said separation making it possible to individually obtain a first quantity of Aluminum, a second quantity of copper, a third quantity of Manganese, a fourth quantity of Nickel, a fifth quantity of Cobalt and a sixth quantity of Lithium, and a seventh quantity of Graphite.

[0043] According to one embodiment, the method comprises a final step of extracting purified lithium.

[0044] Brief description of the figures

[0045] Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will emerge on reading the detailed description which follows, with reference to the appended figures, which illustrate:

[0046] ■ Figure 1: an example of a representation of a cell forming a unitary battery element;

[0047] ■ Figure 2: an example of a battery module comprising a plurality of cells as shown in Figure 1;

[0048] ■ Figure 3: an example of a battery pack comprising a plurality of modules as shown in Figure 2;

[0049] ■ Figure 4: an example of representation of the constituent elements of a battery cell;

[0050] ■ Figure 5: a representation of a set of steps of the invention according to an embodiment of the invention;

[0051] ■ Figure 6: a representation of a set of screening steps that can be implemented in the method of the invention,

[0052] ■ Figure 7: a representation of a set of steps that can be implemented in the process of the invention which are subsequent to the drying and sieving of the black mass in order to purify it and further representing a step for extracting and purifying a quantity of Lithium.

[0053] Definitions

[0054] In the remainder of the description, the term “battery” means any electrochemical storage device which can store and supply electrical energy.

[0055] The invention relates to any type of battery, such as accumulators and more particularly batteries comprising metallic elements which are to be recovered during a recycling operation. In the present description, the term "battery element" means any type of battery, accumulator or cell and also any part of these elements.

[0056] In this description, the term "black mass" means any type of metallic material contained in a battery element used in particular to form the electrodes. This black mass can be in the form of small elements, particles or powders. The black mass includes in particular Cobalt, Graphite, Manganese, Nickel or Lithium. Other metallic elements can make up what is called black mass.

[0057] Copper and aluminum are generally considered not to be part of the black mass. However, the method of the invention also allows their recovery.

[0058] Figure 1 shows a unit cell 10 forming a simple battery. These elements are often used in small electronic devices such as cameras or other consumer electronic devices. This unit cell forms a battery element.

[0059] Figure 2 shows a module 20 comprising an arrangement of unit cells 10 so as to offer a greater storage capacity. Such a module is for example used in electric vehicles, such as an electric bicycle, or more generally electronic equipment requiring greater electrical capacity or greater electrical power. A module advantageously comprises a frame 21 for holding and insulating the unit cells 10. The frame may comprise plastic and metal parts that will be sought to be recovered during the recycling of this module. The battery modules comprise a positive terminal 23 and a negative terminal 22 for connecting the terminals of an electrical device.

[0060] Figure 3 represents a pack 30 comprising a plurality of modules 20 such as that represented in Figure 2. A pack 30 comprises a frame 31 for holding a plurality of modules 20 and isolating them from other components. A pack is preferably used for heavy electric vehicles such as electric automobiles. A pack comprises at least one positive terminal 32 and one negative terminal 33. The cells, the modules and the packs are battery elements within the meaning of the invention. The method of the invention notably allows the recycling of the invention of these three battery elements.

[0061] Figure 4 shows in sectional view and in a non-exhaustive manner different components of a cell 10. Component 16 represents the termination of the positive terminal, component 17 represents the CID designating in the English terminology "Current Interrupt Device", component 12 represents the separator, component 13 represents the negative electrode, component 14 represents a seal, component 18 represents a circumferential insulator, component 5 represents a PTC type plastic layer and component 19 represents a positive electrode.

[0062] Thus, this example of cell 10 makes it possible to understand the great diversity of constituent components of a battery. The method of the invention effectively makes it possible to recover a large part of the black mass of each cell, more than 90% of the black mass. According to certain implementations of the invention, more than 95% of the black mass is recovered. According to a preferred embodiment, more than 99% of the black mass is recovered.

[0063] Figure 5 represents an example of steps of an embodiment of the invention. The method of the invention more particularly addresses the steps of electric discharge DEi, grinding BRi and then drying SECi.

[0064] However, the method of the invention can be supplemented or enriched with preliminary steps such as the first step shown in Figure 5 of separation SEPi of large battery elements. This step is more commonly called "dismantling". This step can be implemented before the electrical discharge step DEi or after or before and after.

[0065] Finally, steps subsequent to the SECi drying step make it possible to collect a black mass with a more or less optimized purification rate according to sieving or hydrometallurgical steps, or even high-temperature heating to improve the purification of the treated black mass. Figure 5 represents a first ENSi set of battery elements which may include, for example, a distribution of cells, modules and packs.

[0066] According to one embodiment, the method comprises a first SEPi separation step corresponding to a dismantling of certain battery elements. This step aims to remove large coating elements or fixing parts called RESi in figure 1.

[0067] This first step of SEPi separation includes, for example, sorting and classifying the batteries. This step can be useful when electrical discharge treatments are carried out based on their type, chemistry, and size. This allows similar batteries to be grouped together to facilitate the following steps of the recycling process.

[0068] This first step of SEPi separation includes, for example, removing the external casings from the battery cells. In this step, the external casings or envelopes of the batteries are removed to access the internal components. This can be done manually or using specialized tools.

[0069] In addition, this first SEPi step may include a step of separating the cells, modules or packs. Indeed, when the batteries are composed of individual cells or modules grouping several cells, it may be interesting to remove the frames when the electrical discharge step is common for example, such as an electrochemical discharge in a wet environment. In this step, the cells or modules are separated from each other to facilitate subsequent processing.

[0070] Finally, this first step may include removing the connectors from the battery cells. Electrical connectors, cables, and other connecting elements are removed from the cells or modules. This prepares the internal components for the electrical discharge and further processing steps.

[0071] The first separation step, when carried out, allows the generation of a first set of dismantled EBi battery elements.

[0072] The method of the invention comprises a step of electrical discharge of the battery elements denoted DEi. This step may comprise the electrical discharge under the same treatment of all the battery elements, such as a dry electrical method or an electrochemical method in a wet environment. According to another embodiment, the electrical discharge step DEi comprises different electrical discharge steps, for example implemented in series so as to increase the discharge rates or implemented in parallel so as to treat discharges specific to the type of battery.

[0073] In one example, an electrochemical discharge is performed to discharge the cell-type battery elements. This discharge is performed in a humid environment. This step notably allows the dissolution of the solvents that contain electrolytes that are absorbed and evacuated into the volume of water.

[0074] The method comprises a step of grinding BRi of the battery elements. This step is advantageously carried out in a humid environment, i.e. in the presence of a volume of water. According to one embodiment, the grinding is carried out in a water bath. According to another example, the grinding is carried out in the presence of a volume of water vapor. According to another embodiment, the grinding is carried out in the presence of a water spray. The spraying can be carried out from a directional jet within the grinding zone. A misting or nebulization comprising water droplets can also be implemented so as to cover a wider area with a smaller volume of water.

[0075] BRi wet grinding advantageously allows residual electrochemical discharge of battery elements during the grinding operation.

[0076] “Wet grinding” means grinding in a humid environment, i.e. grinding in an environment in which the humidity level is controlled.

[0077] One advantage of the BRi grinding step in a wet environment is that it reduces or even eliminates all risks of fire starting. Indeed, in a wet environment, a spark cannot cause a persistent fire to start that could spread among the battery cells. According to one embodiment, grinding in a wet environment is carried out in such a way as to control the humidity level TH of the surrounding environment, allowing the crushed battery cells to be recovered.

[0078] Grinding can be carried out using a gear mill or a knife mill. After grinding battery cells, the resulting material is usually a complex mixture of debris, including metal components, plastics, and other materials.

[0079] According to an exemplary embodiment, the method of the invention comprises a step aimed at recovering the crushed battery elements in a flotation tank. This step is preferably implemented after the BRi crushing step.

[0080] The separation step enabled by the flotation unit allows materials to be separated according to their density. This operation is an initial filtering of plastic parts that can be easily processed separately. The elements removed in the black mass recovery process are denoted RES2. The separation achieved by the flotation unit uses buoyancy principles to separate the different fractions according to their density. To this end, a dense mixture is obtained after grinding. The dense mixture is formed from the ground components and materials, water, and possibly chemical reagents to form a dense suspension. The chemical reagents are used to modify the properties of the suspension, thus promoting the separation of materials according to their density.

[0081] It is then possible to carry out separation by flotation. According to an exemplary embodiment (non-exhaustive and non-limiting), the dense suspension is introduced into a tank where a flotation device is used to create a current of air or gas. This air / gas current causes the formation of bubbles which adhere to the lighter density materials, causing them to float on the surface of the tank. Heavier density materials, such as metals, sink to the bottom of the tank.

[0082] Separation is then achieved by collecting the different fractions according to their density. The floating light fractions, mainly composed of plastics and other light materials, denoted RES2 in Figure 5, are collected at the surface of the tank. The heavy fractions, denoted EB2 in Figure 5, mainly containing metals, are recovered from the bottom of the tank.

[0083] The method of the invention comprises a drying step SECi carried out by implementing controlled heating of the fractions or of the set of crushed EB2 battery elements when the separation FLi is not carried out. This heating step allows a first operation of dehydration of the battery elements so that a volume of water is evacuated. This dehydration can lead to desorption.

[0084] In the case of desorption, molecules or ions adsorbed by various materials detach from the attachment sites on the surface of the material and are released into the environment in the form of gas, liquid or solute.

[0085] Advantageously, during this operation, the heating is controlled to promote the dehydration phenomenon while limiting the softening effect of the residual plastic portions. The objective of this first drying step is to dehydrate the crushed battery elements.

[0086] According to a particular mode, during this operation, the heating is controlled to promote the desorption phenomenon while limiting the softening effect of the portions of residual plastic materials.

[0087] Indeed, excessive heating would induce an effect opposite to the desired effect, i.e. to mechanically dissociate the crushed metal parts from the crushed plastic parts. An advantage of this drying step is the naturally obtained effect of improving the dissociation of the parts from each other because the dry surfaces no longer adhere to each other. This improvement in the dissociation of the elements from each other increases the separation capacity of the residual battery elements in order to more simply filter the black mass BMi that we are seeking to recover. This step allows a clear increase in the volume of black mass BMi that can be recovered in the following stages of battery recycling.

[0088] In order to control the temperature of the first SECi drying, a heating element configured to control the temperature in the range from 90° to 120° is used. A temperature sensor can be arranged in the compartment used for drying to monitor any possible temperature overshoots. The compartment can, for example, be the same as the one used for BRi grinding. In another case, the compartment is different from that of the grinder. In the case where the ground elements pass through a flotation unit, the compartment used for this operation can be used to dry the ground battery elements.

[0089] One advantage of SECi heating is that it improves the separation and dissociation of parts from each other. These parts can be pieces of electrodes, connectors, insulators, metals or pieces of plastic, etc. This drying can be carried out in combination with a stirring operation of the battery elements or even by a vibration mixing operation. The elements linked together can then more easily dissociate from each other.

[0090] This drying step by controlling the temperature is preferably carried out by maintaining the temperature between 90°C and 120°C. Advantageously, an effect obtained is optimal for a temperature between 100°C and 110°C.

[0091] A first benefit of this heating is to increase the natural separation of the components of crushed EBi or EB2 battery cells. In fact, this drying makes it possible to separate plastic elements, connectors or even larger plates.

[0092] According to one embodiment, a screening step TAM1 is carried out following the drying SEC1 so as to separate the battery elements of different dimensions. Figure 1 represents unretained elements RES3 which are removed from the black mass recovery line BM1 using the method of the invention.

[0093] According to one embodiment, the sieving step TAM1 may comprise different sieving steps as shown in Figure 6. The advantage of implementing several sieving steps is to separate the battery elements with increasingly fine granularity.

[0094] These operations allow for better sorting, adaptation of the vibration regimes of the sieves to the parts to be treated and finally recovery of the purified black mass BM2 at the end of the line. For this purpose, different vibrating sieves can be configured according to the sieving steps of the invention. According to one example, a first TAMn sieving is carried out to filter the battery elements whose largest dimension is less than 15 mm. One advantage is to remove the large parts for a first reprocessing circuit while refining the black mass rate present in the volume of battery elements previously crushed. The removed parts correspond in particular to metal plates and large plastic parts.

[0095] In one example, a second TAM12 sieving is carried out following the first TAMn sieving to filter battery elements whose largest dimension is between 2 mm and 15 mm. One advantage is to evacuate the filtered parts for a second reprocessing circuit while refining the residual black mass rate in the crushed battery elements which are processed in the sieving circuit. The evacuated elements mainly correspond to aluminum and copper materials.

[0096] According to one example, a third TAM13 sieving is carried out following the second TAM12 sieving to filter the battery elements whose largest dimension is greater than 2 mm. One advantage is to recover at the end of the sieving line a filtered and purified black mass with a purification rate greater than a given threshold, of the order of 85% to 92%. The recovered elements which have dimensions greater than 2 mm are mainly small metals which can be reprocessed in a given reprocessing circuit.

[0097] The invention may comprise an additional step aimed at heating the obtained black mass BM2 following the sieving steps TAM1 so as to eliminate the plastic residues and in particular PTFE, which in technical terminology designates “Polytetrafluoroethylene”. This second heating step is noted SEC2 in Figure 7. This step SEC2 comprises progressive heating to liquefy the plastics in a first step and gasify them in a second step. This thermal desorption step therefore passes through a temperature of between 200°C and 250°C in order to liquefy in a first step the residual plastic elements comprising in particular PTFE and PTF. Then, the temperature to which the black mass BM2 is brought is between 350°C and 600°C. Preferably, this temperature is in the range of values ​​between 500°C and 570°C, with a target value according to an example of 550°C.

[0098] One advantage of this heating is that it eliminates residual organic matter, resulting in a value close to 1 ppm of total organic carbon (TOC) at the end of the process. This SEC2 heating is carried out at a higher temperature than the temperature of the first SECi drying, which improves the dissociation of the battery elements without transforming the state of the material making up the treated materials.

[0099] An advantage of this second thermal desorption step is to further purify the black mass to obtain a pure black mass at a rate higher than 95%, and close to 99%. That is to say that the weight of the black mass obtained is substantially equivalent to the weight of the pure metals distributed in the same proportions as the distribution of these metals within the recovered black mass.

[0100] According to one embodiment, the method of the invention comprises a hydrometallurgical step HM1 making it possible to separate the metals from each other.

[0101] To this end, the HM1 hydrometallurgical step may include leaching and / or dissolution of the black mass. Then a separation of the different metals / constituents is carried out according to the properties of each of the metals contained in the black mass. Electrolysis may be used to recover the metals.

[0102] A step of extraction of purified Lithium Li1 is implemented. It is noted EXT-Li in figure 7. An interest is to recover all the metals from the black mass individually, namely nickel, copper, cobalt, chromium, manganese, lithium, etc.

[0103] The lithium can then be processed for reuse in the manufacture of new batteries.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. Method for recovering the black mass (BMi, BM2) from a set (ENS1) of battery elements constituting a battery and / or a plurality of batteries comprising: ■ Recovery of a set of battery elements (EB1, ENS1); ■ Electrical discharge (DE1) of battery elements (EB1); ■ Grinding (BR1) of battery elements (EB1) in the presence of a volume of water, called wet grinding; ■ First drying (SEC1) of the crushed battery elements (EB2) at a regulated temperature between 90° and 120°; ■ Sieving (TAM1) of the crushed (EB2) and dried battery elements and extraction of a first quantity (Q1) of black mass (BM1).

2. Method according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the first drying (SEC1) comprises controlling a heating element to maintain the temperature in the range from 90° to 120°.

3. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the first drying (SEC1) is carried out in combination with mixing of the crushed battery elements (EB1) making it possible to promote the dissociation of the battery elements from each other.

4. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the temperature of the first drying (SEC1) is between 100°C and 110°C.

5. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the first drying (SEC1) is carried out by means of a gas heating device or an electric heating device.

6. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises, following the sieving step (TAMi): ■ a thermal desorption step (SEC2) of the black mass (BM1, BM2) at a temperature between 350°C and 600°C, said desorption of the black mass being accompanied by gasification of the residual plastic elements in order to eliminate the residual organic matter from the collected black mass (BM1, BM2); ■ recovery of gases from the gasification of residual plastic elements and thermal oxidation of said gases; ■ recovery of the purified black mass.

7. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a preliminary separation step (SEP1) making it possible to dismantle battery elements (EB1).

8. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the electrical discharge step is an electrochemical and / or electrolytic discharge step carried out in a salt bath.

9. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a first dry electrical discharge of a first set of battery elements is carried out and a second electrolytic discharge of a second set of battery elements is carried out, the two sets of discharged battery elements being brought together to be ground in the same wet grinding step (BR1).

10. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the grinding (BR1) is carried out above a floatation unit making it possible to recover the ground battery elements.

11. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the grinding step comprises controlling an injection of a volume of water during the grinding step (BRi) to obtain a predefined humidity level at the outlet of a grinder.

12. Method according to claim 11 characterized in that the injection of a volume of water during the grinding step (BRi) is controlled to obtain a humidity level of between 20% and 40%.

13. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the grinding (BRi) is carried out by means of a gear mill and / or a knife mill.

14. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the grinding is carried out so as to grind in the same step battery elements (EBi) comprising at least one unit cell and at least one cell module and at least one cell module pack.

15. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sieving (TAMi) comprises: ■ A first screening (TAMn) with a granularity between 0 and 15 mm in order to remove plastics (PLi) and metal plates (MEi); ■ A second sieving (TAM12) with a granularity of less than 2 mm to collect residual metals and in particular collect Copper and Aluminum elements (Cu, Al); ■ A third sieving (TAM3) with a granularity between 0.1 mm and 2 mm to collect a quantity of black mass (BM2) in the form of a powder.

16. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it further comprises: ■ a separation of the different metals from the black mass (BMi) collected in the form of powder by implementing a hydrometallurgical process (HMi); said separation making it possible to individually obtain a first quantity of Aluminum, a second quantity of copper, a third quantity of Manganese, a fourth quantity of Nickel, a fifth quantity of Cobalt and a sixth quantity of Lithium, and a seventh quantity of Graphite.

17. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a final extraction step (EXT-LI) of purified lithium (Lii).

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