Ing. Dominik Pilnaj

The ever-increasing requirements for global carbon dioxide CO2 emission reduction decrease the production of new internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). On the contrary, the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) increases along with the number of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Recycling LIBs seems to be one of the most promising options for end-of-life (EOL) treatment solutions; however, many process effects of currently used battery compounds are still being addressed, e.g., the safety and potential risks of wastewater, battery scrap, or leaks into the air. In this work, the LIB nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cell electrolyte was characterized in wastewater using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), inductively coupled plasma with optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES), and the residues of toxic substances bound to nm-μm valuable metal particles in battery scrap were determined by x-ray fluorescence (XRF).