Method for crushing cell

A battery dismantling processing method to process a battery in which one or more sealed battery cells are enclosed within a case made of plastic, and positive and negative electrodes of said sealed battery cells are made of a metal sheet coated with active materials of the positive and negative electrodes, said processing method comprising:

• a crushing and separation process wherein the battery is cooled to a temperature no greater than −50° C. and subjected to repeated vibration and pressure by a number of objects whose rigidity and specific gravity are greater than those of the plastic in order to separate the battery into the sealed battery cell and a plastic case;
• a heating and separation process to heat the sealed battery cell separated in said crushing and separation process to a temperature of at least 200° C. in a non-oxidizing atmosphere such that organic materials are separated;
• and
• one or more sorting processes in which useless materials are removed and targeted valuable materials are sorted out in an orderly fashion from crushed fragments produced in said crushing and separation process.

A battery dismantling processing method to process a battery in which one or more sealed battery cells are enclosed within a case made of plastic and positive and negative electrodes of said batteries are made by a metal sheet coated with active materials of the positive and negative electrodes, said process comprising:

• a crushing and separation process wherein the battery is cooled to a temperature no greater than −50° C. and subjected to repeated vibration and pressure by a number of objects whose rigidity and specific gravity are greater than those of the plastic in order to separate the battery into the sealed battery cell and a plastic case;
• a battery cell crushing process to crush the sealed battery cell separated in said crushing and separation process under the melting point of an organic solvent inside the battery cell;
• and
• one or more sorting processes in which useless materials are removed and targeted valuable materials are sorted out in an orderly fashion from crushed fragments produced in said crushing process.

A battery dismantling processing method to process a battery in which one or more sealed battery cells are enclosed within a plastic case and said batteries have positive and negative electrodes made of a metal sheet coated with active materials of the positive and negative electrodes and an electrolyte solution containing salts comprised of cations and Lewis acid ions, said process comprising:

• a crushing and separation process to separate the battery into a sealed battery cell and a plastic case;
• a battery cell crushing process to crush the sealed battery cell separated in said crushing and separation process;
• and
• one or more sorting processes in which useless materials are removed and targeted valuable materials are sorted out in an orderly fashion from crushed fragments produced in said crushing process,
• said sorting processes including a process to separate the salts from the crushed fragments immersed in the electrolyte solution and a process to accelerate hydrolysis of Lewis acid ions separated in the electrolyte solution by adding a heated acid solution to the electrolyte solution, said sorting processes further including a solidifying process to solidify the salts by adding a fixative.