The lithium-ion battery recycling process is a key link to realize resource recycling and reduce environmental pollution, and also an important support for the sustainable development of the new energy industry. With the wide application of lithium-ion batteries in various equipment, the number of waste batteries is increasing year by year. If not properly handled, the precious metals such as cobalt, nickel, lithium and electrolytes inside them will cause serious pollution to soil and water sources. A scientific and standardized recycling process can not only realize the recycling of precious metals, but also reduce the environmental burden, with both environmental and economic benefits.

　　The complete lithium-ion battery recycling process is mainly divided into four core steps, which are interlocking and progressive. The first step is pretreatment. Workers first classify and screen waste batteries, remove unqualified batteries such as damaged and leaking ones, then eliminate potential safety hazards through discharge treatment, and then disassemble and crush them to separate battery casings, electrodes, electrolytes and other components to prepare for subsequent recycling. The pretreatment link must strictly control the operation specifications to avoid secondary pollution caused by electrolyte leakage.

　　The second step is hydrometallurgy. The crushed electrode materials are put into acidic solution, and precious metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium are separated through chemical reactions such as dissolution, extraction and precipitation. This method has high recovery rate and thorough impurity separation, and is the current mainstream recycling process. The third step is pyrometallurgy. For some insoluble electrode materials, impurities are removed by high-temperature roasting, and then precious metals are extracted, which is suitable for the recycling demand of high-purity battery materials. Finally, recycling and reuse: the extracted precious metals are processed into electrode materials and reused in battery production to realize resource recycling. At the same time, the non-recyclable waste is harmlessly treated to ensure zero pollution emission. The whole process takes into account environmental protection and efficiency, promoting the lithium-ion battery industry to form a closed-loop development model of "production - use - recycling - regeneration".