Vision

The city of Freiberg is home to several research institutes that have expertise along the recycling chain of Li-ion batteries:

The Data Mining Lab Freiberg bridges a critical knowledge gap between these institutions and combines their research data from joint projects. With the help of data science tools and machine learning, the DMLF possibly reveals new insights into important questions regarding the recyclability of critical raw materials.

Introductory Statement by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Urs Peuker (in German)

Philosophy

In order to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of recycling routes, a holistic approach needs to be taken that takes into account all processing steps from the end-of-life battery to the newly produced battery cell. Life cycle analyses often fall short in their predictive power because the avilable data on several processing steps is lacking at best. With the Data Mining Lab Freiberg, the recycling chain can be investigated as a whole and parameter changes can be transparently compared by ensuring a consistent data structure across experiments. Consistency is made sure by the inherent structure of the database. Learn more about it by clicking on Database Structure.

The act of uploading a dataset to the database forces the researcher to think about the validity of their data. By providing research data to a wide audience, the quality of datasets will necessarily improve. Data is made available to interested third parties upon request. Data queries are made possible through a RESTful API. Learn more by following the link to the API Documentation.

If you want to gain access to the data in the Data Mining Lab Freiberg or think you can provide meaningful addition to the processing technologies and want to become a partner institution, feel free to contact us via the Get Access button.

Mechanical Battery Recycling Process

The Institute of Mechanical Process Engineering and Mineral Processing has a decade of experience in the mechanical recycling of Li-ion batteries. The schematic below shows the "Freiberg Route" of mechanical battery recycling. The processing route combines two crushing stages with separate classification steps, one mechanical (sieving) and one air classification step (zig-zag sifter) per stage. The ideal end products are copper and aluminium foil concentrates as well as black mass with all particles smaller than the sieve cuts of each stage. The black mass contains the metal oxides, with the valuable metals nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium.

Schematic representation of the mechanical recycling process at MVTAT