I’m going to say it, I’m energized by the thought of participating in the International Battery Seminar and Exhibit in Orlando, Florida, next month. In 2023, more than 2,100 battery technologists attended. This year’s March event is expected to be even larger, with many speakers from around the world. I’m going to be one of them!

The Seminar has four streams for participants:

  • R & D: Battery Research and Recycling
  • Manufacturing: Performance and Supply Chain
  • Engineering: Safety, Management Systems and Intelligence
  • Applications: Energy Storage Systems (ESS), Automotive and Electronics

I’m presenting as part of the Battery Recycling – Advanced Recycling Methods for Sustainable Battery Materials Supply session on March 14 at 5 p.m. This stream reviews the latest advances in recycling technologies for producing sustainable battery materials from different recycling sources.  My presentation, “Engineering Strategy for Design and Scale-Up of a Recycling Process” focuses on one of the most important topics for battery recycling: How to de-risk the scale-up to commercial operations.

Presenting a five-step process

To correctly scale-up, the industry needs to “act like recyclers” but “think like a chemical plant” for making high-quality black mass. My presentation provides a five-step procedure beginning with questions to ask for a detailed specification as well as discussion of important considerations from preliminary design to final design for construction. The engineering strategy must include HAZOP risk analysis for the plant’s safe operation.

The procedure I’ll go over is applicable for the recycling of wet or dry production scrap and End-of-Life (EOL) batteries from the transportation sector, and for small-format batteries from the household consumer sector and power tools. If you want to learn more, check out another presentation I’ve made on recycling process for lithium and battery materials.

With such a rapid proliferation of technological advances and the cross-disciplinary nature of the work worldwide, companies in lithium and battery materials and the recycling market need “Key-Shaped” engineers. That means working with people who have several areas of expertise with varying degrees of depth.

Who should attend my presentation?

My presentation provides guidance to engineers facing critical decisions for selecting process shredding, granulating, and drying technologies for the various complex steps in battery recycling. I’ll also discuss criteria for selecting technologies with the objective of helping you develop creative process solutions to achieve battery grade black mass and a reliable and cost-effective operation.

For more information on black mass recovery, read my column in Chemical Processing, Barry on Batteries. You can check out the slides now. Please contact me if you will be in Orlando. Otherwise let’s schedule a virtual meeting.  Let us get more efficient together.