Dear Bayoubucks,

Interesting question on several levels. Thanks for asking.

What we like about plasma is that it is a very flexible process, and is able to treat a variety of waste streams.  As such, it should be able to be adapted to the recycling of lithium batteries.

As you probably know, the field of lithium recycling is in its infancy, as the extraction of virgin material is still cheaper than recycling.  This makes the economic viability of recycling lithium by any plasma process challenging.  That being said, at PyroGenesis, we do like challenges.

One of the clear advantages of using plasma in this situation (one in which battery compositions are constantly evolving) is that plasma would be able to treat batteries with varying chemical compositions without too many process changes.  A plasma process would produce two phases: a metal phase and a slag (oxide) phase, the latter which would contain the lithium.  In both cases, the metal phase and the slag phase would need to be sent elsewhere for the recovery of the individual metal fractions.

Now before we get too excited I must, in all honesty, point out that although plasma can theoretically treat lithium ion batteries, it would probably be overkill for this type of application; a lower temperature pyrometallurgical processes might, in this case, be more practical. That being said, we are always open to developing new processes for the right client in the right situation, when and where the economics make sense.

I trust that helps you out.

Thanks once again for posting.

Sincerely,

P. Peter Pascali, CEO, PyroGenesis Canada Inc