- Chinese researchers found a way to extract all the lithium from a dead battery for reuse.
- They discovered a special process to reduce costs, speed up recycling and prevent harmful byproducts from spilling into the environment.
- America’s battery recycling industry is growing, but support from the current administration remains unclear.
As electric vehicle adoption increases, millions of end-of-life batteries will be up for recycling by the early 2030s. Improper disposal of these batteries can contaminate the planet with harmful chemicals. That’s why researchers are racing to find solutions to maximize the recycling potential of EV batteries.
Now, Chinese researchers have found a way to recycle nearly 100% of the lithium in a battery, The Independent first reported, citing a study from the German academic journal Angewandte Chemie. They used a special technique to extract 99.99% of the lithium, 97% of the nickel, 92% of the cobalt and 91% of the manganese from a used battery.
Researchers said traditional extraction methods using amino acids cause safety issues and risk doing more environmental harm than good. Instead, they used an extraction technique called “neutral leaching.” It replaces the harsh chemicals of traditional recycling with a neutral solution, apparently making the process safer and more eco-friendly.
Volkswagen Group Components Battery Recycling
It also saves time, with lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese extraction taking just 15 minutes. The researchers also used a simpler amino acid called “glycine” to extract lithium more efficiently and then used a special process to avoid any further chemical reactions. As a result, the possibility of harmful byproducts is minimized. The study also says this process reduces recycling cost.
The study was conducted by multiple Chinese universities, including Central South University in Changsha, Guizhou Normal University and the National Engineering Research Center of Advanced Energy Storage Materials.
This may be a lab experiment, but battery recycling is still an untapped resource that could be worth billions of dollars over the years. It can even make new EV batteries that use recycled content significantly cheaper. In fact, a clause in the Inflation Reduction Act qualifies batteries recycled in the U.S. as American-made, making them eligible for subsidies regardless of the country of origin. That’s part of the reason why the recycling industry in the U.S. is growing rapidly.
In August, the U.S. Department Of Energy finalized a $475 million loan to battery recycling company Li-Cycle for a factory in upstate New York. The DOE also awarded a conditional loan of $2 billion to Redwood Materials, headed by former Tesla executive JB Straubel, for a plant in Nevada. And Ascend Elements also secured a $480 grant to build a factory in Kentucky.
These are just a few examples, but dozens of other recycling plants are also in the pipeline. Even if funding for EVs is pulled back, tariffs are imposed on imports and tax credits vanish, the battery industry is poised for continued growth. That’s because even gas cars, the hybrid and plug-in hybrid kind, need batteries, in addition to dozens of other applications such as energy storage, robots and drones.
Given the sheer strength of the market forces, the ripple effect is likely to benefit the EV industry as well.
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