The secret to optimizing black mass recycling

von Severine Michel, Friday, 14th March 2025

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The black mass from used lithium-ion batteries is rich in the precious metals that are critical in the battery supply chain. When recycled efficiently, this black mass can

bring significant profit margins to recyclers and lower the cost of raw materials for battery manufacturers. This, in turn, aids in the ongoing transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and the shift to a circular economy.

However, accessing this efficiency remains challenging. The chemistry of black mass is highly variable, especially between different types of battery materials. To safeguard yield, purity, and profitability, plants must adapt their separation and recovery processes to their feedstocks, using precise and accurate real-time compositional analysis. Here’s how to get it right.

Adapt your extraction techniques

Two of the most common types of lithium-ion batteries recyclers deal with are lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). The stability and lower cost of production of LFP batteries have made them a popular choice, but NMC batteries are widely used in application areas that require higher energy density – like EV production – and are therefore likely to increase in usage in the coming years.

Most black mass recyclers process a mix of LFP and NMC variants. This presents challenges in the leaching, separation, and refinement stages because, unlike LFP batteries, NMC chemistry is highly variable, with common variants such as NMC 622 (6 parts nickel to 2 parts manganese to 2 parts cobalt), 811, 333, and so on. Each elemental composition requires a different extraction approach to minimize costs and maximize yield. Incorrect assumptions about incoming materials could lead to inefficient separation processes being selected, negatively impacting your recovery rates, waste generation, and operating costs.

Take the example of solvent extraction, a common hydrometallurgical technique in black mass recycling. This technique effectively separates cobalt, nickel, lithium, and manganese from the black mass mixture – providing there is a high concentration and purity of these metals in the feedstock. Applying solvent extraction to a feedstock that doesn’t have these properties, however, could require further purification steps, increasing costs. And if your sample contains reactive or hazardous contaminants, it could also pose risks to your operators through dangerous exothermic reactions or toxic waste.

Black mass recyclers need direct, real-time insights into their materials to avoid unnecessary cost overruns, waste generation, and even plant downtime. However, the most commonly used methods of black mass analysis aren’t up to the challenge.

Leave traditional sampling methods behind

Traditionally, black mass recyclers use lab-based materials analysis methods such as inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis that require a technician to take a sample of the feedstock, test it in a separate location, and adjust the processing techniques based on the results.

Here’s the problem: black mass feedstocks are so heterogenous that there’s no guarantee a sample like this will be representative of the whole batch. Given the long timeframe within which lab results are returned and applied to the process line, it is especially unlikely to be representative. ICP results can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to return results – by which point, the feedstock will be completely new. Finally, the sampling process is labor-intensive and inherently risky, requiring an operator to approach the hazardous materials on the process line.

To address these issues and enable on-the-line decision-making, black mass recyclers need an analytical solution that can analyze black mass feedstocks in real-time, in bulk, and with minimal risk to operators. That’s where pulsed fast and thermal neutron activation (PFTNA) analysis comes in.

An on-line analysis technique enabling real-time optimization

PFTNA analysis is an advanced, non-destructive bulk analysis method that uses pulsed excitation to ‘illuminate’ the material being studied. This produces high-quality, time-resolved gamma-ray spectra that give you precise and accurate insight into the elemental composition of your materials. This analysis can be performed remotely, minimizing the risk to your operators and optimizing your decision-making time.

With Malvern Panalytical’s CNA Pentos cross-belt analyzer, you can apply this powerful elemental analysis directly to your process line, collecting high-quality, real-time insights into your materials without the need for costly sampling equipment or extra laboratory staff. This enables you to adapt your processes to your feedstocks much quicker and more effectively, reducing waste while maximizing productivity and profit.

Join our webinar to learn how to optimize your black mass recycling processes

To help you access the benefits of direct bulk analysis for your black mass recycling process, we’re hosting a webinar with one of our CNA experts. You’ll learn all about:

How to generate a robust estimation of the total cathode metal content in your black mass batch
How to optimize reagent and chemical consumption during hydrometallurgical processing with the CNA Pentos
How to estimate the calorific content for pyrometallurgical processing

Don’t miss out – book your place here!

Further reading