Baseline techno-economic and life cycle assessment of black mass production.

Recycling lithium-ion batteries hinges on economically producing black mass-the electrode powder concentrate that feeds downstream metal recovery-yet public baselines pairing real process economics with environmental impacts remain scarce. Here we show that a purely mechanical flowsheet-shredding, zigzag air classification, and circular screen vibration-applied identically to two structurally distinct feedstocks recovers black mass at 93.28 wt % separation efficiency from electric-vehicle modules and 75.77 wt % from mobile phone cells. Built on measured pilot data, loaded processing costs of $0.31-0.73/kg yield net profits of $4.39-5.53/kg under realistic feedstock purchase prices, with a probability of unprofitability below 0.2% across simulated market scenarios. Life cycle assessment attributes most impacts to grid electricity, with a global warming potential of 0.210-0.241 kg CO2 eq./kg input; a low-carbon grid cuts this by 62.8%. This paired baseline enables benchmarking of emerging recycling routes and supports circular battery supply chains.