Sustainable Energy involving Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

The explosive growth of lithium-ion batteries has led to a need for sustainable energy and lithium-ion battery recycling measures.

Reader Contribution by Anna Twitto
Published on February 14, 2022
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by Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Researcher and University of Tennessee graduate student Seong Jin An works with lithium-ion batteries undergoing protocol that shortens part of battery production by up to 90 percent.

Sony commercialized lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in 1991. Now lithium-ion batteries are fully embedded in society. They are in home electronics, laptops, cell phones, tablets, power tools, and garden equipment. LIBs also power model aircraft and electric wheelchairs and so much more. They are in aerospace powering the Mars Curiosity Rover. A major use of lithium-ion batteries is for hybrid and electric vehicles creating a need for sustainable energy and battery recycling measures.

The booming popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) has resulted in the explosive growth of lithium-ion batteries, and in turn, spent batteries. Industry analysts suggest that China has already generated 500,000 metric tons of used lithium-ion batteries. By 2030, the worldwide amount of spent lithium-ion batteries is projected to be about 2 million metric tons.

Lithium Battery Recycling Lags and Strides

So far, recycling rates for lithium-ion batteries have been low: 2% in Australia and around 5% in America and Europe. That compares to virtually 100% of the lead-acid batteries from cars and trucks that are recycled in the United States.

Here to date, battery researchers have been focused on lowering the costs of new batteries and increasing their longevity. They haven’t been focused on recycling batteries. It’s been a costly and messy proposition: Battery recycling involves high temperature melting and extracting, or smelting — energy-intensive processes.

But now, fortunately, there is growing interest in this field. There is more academic research and a new breed of engineers coming out to tackle this problem. The U.S. Department of Energy opened its first lithium-ion battery recycling R&D center, the ReCell Center. Its goal is to make lithium-ion battery recycling competitive and profitable. The goal is to use recycled materials instead of continued dependence on foreign sources. The DOE also launched a $5.5 million battery recycling competition.

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