Recycling to save resources
The rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) make it urgent to boost recycling of LIBs to preserve the environment and make Europe less dependent on virgin materials. Three new projects in the Battery 2030+ family focus on this; they are Renovate, Reuse and Revitalize. Renovate, coordinated by Eliana Quartarone at INSTM in Italy, target the re-use of 100 percent of the battery cell fractions (metallic foil, graphite, electrolyte, fluorinated compounds and cathode active materials). The aim is that the processes and methods developed should be attractive from a business point of view. A specific aim will also be smart re-integration of waste chemicals and solvents in the recycling process, or fit for use in other industrial activities, so to minimize the residues coming from battery production.
To improve the circularity and sustainability of the entire low-value LFP battery waste stream - from production scrap to end-of-life LiB, is the goal for Reuse, coordinated by Uwe Posset at Fraunhofer in Germany. This shall be done by new recycling processes that maximize the recovery of input elements and components, including the development of automated sorting and disassembly strategies. Life cycle assessment, life cycle costing and social impact studies are other important tools to maximize material recovery, energy efficiency and purity.
While Reuse and Renovate focus more on different kind of lithium-based batteries, Revitalize also addresses NMC (Hi-Ni), and Na-Ion batteries. Revitalise, coordinated by Sulalit Bandyopadhyay at NTNU in Norway, claims to reach overall recycling rates beyond 91 percent at TRL4 for waste processed from post-production scrap and end-of-life battery black mass. This shall be done by the development of innovative pre-treatment technologies based on electrohydraulic fragmentation, ultrasonication and magnetic, and electrostatic separation that will achieve very high levels of material stream purity. A polymeric nanocomposite membrane separation will further enhance Li recovery from wastewater streams generated. In all, this will enable commercially viable recycling even of low-value parts.
