A Cost-Effective Lithium-Ion Battery Direct Recycling Process

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries have dominated the power source market for consumer electronics (W⋅h scale) and are becoming the dominant battery technology for electrified vehicles (EV, kW⋅h scale) and grid-scale electrochemical energy storage systems (MW⋅h scale) [1,2]. The growing ubiquity of lithium-ion batteries also brings a rapid growth in hazardous battery waste from manufacturing processes and end-of-life (EOL) disposal [3,4]. In the EV sector alone, approximately 50-100 million lithium-ion cells in the US and China will reach their EOL by 2020, thus generating large amounts of hazardous waste [5]. However, conventional pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical battery recycling processes require high temperature, strong acid leaching and extensive gas treatment, which lead to prohibitive cost, high energy consumption, water contamination and recycled materials with low resale value [6,7]. Since the cathode materials account for 30-40% of the overall battery cost, a cost-effective and eco-friendly direct recycling process that yields reusable battery-grade cathode materials can lower the energy consumption and battery materials cost. In this talk, we will demonstrate a scalable and cost-effective direct recycling process for EOL lithium-ion batteries to yield battery-grade cathodes. The recycled cathodes retain the microstructure and show equivalent electrochemical performance compared to the pristine cathode materials. We will also present life cycle analysis for several cathode materials widely used in current state-of-the-art electrified vehicles and compare the energy consumptions of different recycling approaches. Reference [1] M.S. Whittingham, Lithium Batteries and Cathode Materials, Chem. Rev. 104 (2004) 4271–4302. doi:10.1021/cr020731c. [2] M.S. Whittingham, Ultimate Limits to Intercalation Reactions for Lithium Batteries, Chem. Rev. 114 (2014) 11414–11443. doi:10.1021/cr5003003. [3] E. Gies, Recycling: Lazarus batteries, Nature. 526 (2015) 526S100a. doi:10.1038/526S100a. [4] L. Gaines, To recycle, or not to recycle, that is the question: Insights from life-cycle analysis, MRS Bull. 37 (2012) 333–338. doi:10.1557/mrs.2012.40. [5] Estimated based on the EV sales volume of US and China from 2011-2015, n.d. [6] J.B. Dunn, L. Gaines, J.C. Kelly, K.G. Gallagher, Life Cycle Analysis Summary for Automotive Lithiumion Battery Production and Recycling, in: Rewas 2016 Mater. Resour. Sustain., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2016: pp. 73–79. doi:10.1002/9781119275039.ch11. [7] L. Gaines, The future of automotive lithium-ion battery recycling: Charting a sustainable course, Sustain. Mater. Technol. 1–2 (2014) 2–7. doi:10.1016/j.susmat.2014.10.001.