5. Pyrometallurgical treatment

Pyrometallurgy, i.e. high-temperature metallurgical treatment to reduce metals, was the first process used to recycle batteries, and in 2020 will still be the most widely deployed in Europe, pending the deployment of hydrometallurgical methods.

For many recyclers, the recycling of lithium batteries was an extension of the recycling of other batteries such as nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydrides, and was mainly carried out on batteries from portable electronic devices (batteries and accumulators). Lithium batteries have historically attracted a great deal of interest from recyclers due to the presence of an electrode very rich in cobalt (worth around five to ten times more than nickel, depending on the price).