01.11.2024 at the Physical-Technical Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus the grand opening of the research and development section of lithium-ion cells processing technology took place. The event was attended by Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov, First Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Sergei Chizhik, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physical and Technical Sciences Sergey Shcherbakov, as well as representatives of JSC BelVTI.

The section is a complex of equipment for research, implementation and testing of the necessary stages of the process of recycling lithium-ion batteries. This is achieved by using hydrometallurgy methods in order to isolate materials from bataries for reuse in industry. The section consists of a zone for preliminary mechanical disassembly of lithium-ion batteries for sorting them by type, assessing the state of charge and separating them into components (metals, plastic, electrode materials), a hydrometallurgy zone for obtaining lithium carbonate, cobalt and nickel powders, and manganese oxide from electrode materials, as well as areas for analyzing intermediate products from the processing of lithium-ion cells.

The equipment of this laboratory section allows to implement mechanical disassembly of lithium-ion batteries and cells, to test technological processes of pyro- and hydrometallurgical processing of lithium-ion cells. These processes help to isolate from them materials suitable for industrial reuse. 

The developed technologies are of great importance not only for science, but also for the country and for the whole world, as emphasized by V.G. Gusakov. At the moment, the section has no analogues either in Belarus or in Russia.