All About Battery Recycling

Electric cars are seen as the sustainable answer to questions of future mobility. But the more electrically powered vehicles are filling the streets, the bigger the recycling problem for discarded batteries. Before recycling, there is the currently untapped potential of reusing electric vehicle batteries in stationary energy storage systems. A solution to this is to be found in life-cycle models such as that of the IoT platform from Circunomics.

Electric cars make up a growing share of the market, which means that larger numbers of batteries will need to be produced and this in turn will lead to an increasing demand for raw materials. In particular during the ramp-up phase of electric mobility, there are likely to be occasional supply bottlenecks. At a later stage, recycling concepts for used battery cells could relieve the pressure on supply chains.

The prices and costs of lithium-ion batteries are subject to very dynamic and competitive factors. New cell chemistries and material pairings need to be evaluated regularly in the context of versatile raw material availability, expected energy densities and powerful partnerships. Reuse should not be neglected. Roland Berger explains why the recycling of certain cell materials is preferable to the Battery Second Life concept on the basis of the above factors and new processes.

Electric vehicles must be widely accepted because of environmental concerns and carbon restrictions. Previous research has looked at consumer policy preferences and their influence on electric vehicle adoption. However, none have investigated the impact of policies linked to battery recycling on electric vehicle adoption. This study used a discrete choice model (the panel-data mixed logit model) to evaluate 552 actual consumer choice data from Southwest China collected via an online questionnaire. Our results indicate that (1) 75% of respondents feel that electric vehicles enhance the environment and are eager to embrace them. However, the lack of strong recycling policies may hinder their adoption of electric vehicles. Specifically, the four battery recycling policies significantly impact electric vehicle adoption. (2) Consumers appreciate producer-oriented incentives more than consumer-oriented incentives to a lesser extent, such as mandated battery recycling policies and electric vehicle battery flow tracing policies. (3) Consumers place a larger willingness to pay on charging station density than vehicle attributes. (4) Regarding consumer heterogeneity, the usual young group in higher-rated cities prefers electric vehicles, while customers who own a car are more inclined to buy electric vehicles. Finally, more management insights and policy recommendations are provided based on these findings to help government and producer policymakers.

Battery recycling has been made to minimize the amount of waste that is composed of heavy metals and toxic chemicals. Recycling under the same process as regular household waste has raised concerns about soil and water pollutions. Hence, for batteries with different compositions, different recycling methods need to be applied. This requires the need to classify the battery prior to recycling. In this paper, a deep learning technique is applied to improve the speed and accuracy of the battery sorting process for recycling. The algorithm is developed to recognize some common battery types and return the classification results in real time. This method allows to classify the large numbers of batteries in a short time and can be applied to automated battery sorting systems.

Due to the exponentially growing market for electric mobility, the number of batteries required for this purpose will, in the future, achieve dimensions in which the use of a battery with an optimized lifetime and effective recycling on an industrial scale will become increasingly important. Ensuring that the battery's life cycle is sustainable and meeting the goal of the circular economy will require battery technologies that are designed for second-life operation after re-manufacturing and which can be recycled in an effective and smart process at the end of their life.

South Asian countries are facing a problem of transport vehicle emission. Electric vehicle with low or even a zero-emission is seen as a potential solution for the tail pipe emission. The environmental impact of lithium-ion battery has been undertaken in this study. One battery pack used in three-wheel electric rickshaws chosen as a case. It has nominal capacity of 3.69 kWh which is considered which is able to be used up to 40,000 km of driving distance for 400 cycles for a period of 3 years. This study reveals the environmental footprint associated with the lithium-ion battery production, use and recycling phases. The result shows that the production phase generates higher impact compared with other phases. In this use phase, electricity losses due to battery charging also cause environmental impact. Valuable materials are recycled in the end-of-life waste management phase contributing benefits and earning environment credits.

The purpose of this study is to advance and illustrate how life cycle assessment (LCA) can assess circular economy business models for lithium-ion batteries to verify potential environmental benefits compared to linear business models. Scenarios for battery repurpose are assessed to support future decision-makers regarding the choice of new versus second life batteries for stationary energy storage. A procedure to determine the substitution coefficient for repurpose and reuse of batteries is proposed.