Black Mass Recycling: Leach, Purify, Separate — Equipment for Each Step

Black mass — shredded cathode and anode material — contains nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium, copper, aluminium and graphite. The route below is the hydrometallurgical core; mechanical pre-treatment (discharging, shredding, density separation) sits upstream and determines how clean your feed is.

Route

Step	Purpose	Equipment	Key parameter
1. Pre-treatment	Remove Al, Cu, graphite	Sieve, magnetic, flotation, calcination	Target < 2% Al, < 1% Cu in black mass
2. Reductive leach	Dissolve NCM/NCA	Glass or PP reactor, H₂SO₄ + H₂O₂	60–80 °C, 2–4 h, pH < 1.5, ORP controlled
3. Solid–liquid separation	Remove graphite and residue	Filter press, 1 µm cartridge polish	< 20 ppm solids to SX
4. Cu/Al removal	Drop impurities before Ni/Co	Cementation or IX	Cu < 5 mg/L
5. Ni/Co/Mn separation	Split the trio	SX (D2EHPA / Cyanex 272) or IX	Purity > 99.5% per stream
6. Li recovery	Concentrate and carbonate	Evaporator–crystallizer, carbonation	Li₂CO₃ > 99.5%

Three decisions that set the whole train

1. Fluoride and aluminium. Electrolyte residues bring fluoride, which attacks glass and titanium. Confirm F and Al before choosing materials; this single analysis often changes the reactor specification.

2. Separation sequence. Removing copper before nickel/cobalt protects the extractant; removing manganese early simplifies the cobalt strip. Each choice changes the number of SX stages and the reagent consumption.

3. Lithium timing. Recovering lithium last concentrates impurities with it. If battery-grade carbonate is the target, plan a polishing IX step before carbonation.

Pilot configuration

A 50–100 kg/batch pilot with a 200 L reactor, filter press, two SX banks and a small crystallizer is enough to produce sample salts for customer qualification — usually the real gate on offtake.

Send your black mass assay with F, Al, Cu and graphite, and we will propose the separation sequence and equipment list.