Characterisation and Initial Purification Studies of Recovered Electrode Material from EVS

Abstract

Li-ion batteries have dominated the portable electronics’ market as the energy storage medium of choice for many years. With increasing concerns related to climate change and the increasing variety of applications in which these batteries can be used, an inevitable increase in demand for the raw materials required to assemble such batteries would be expected. This has led to increasing concern that the virgin materials may be depleted considerably by 2050 if demand continues to rise as predicted.[1] With the government’s new environmental strategy pushing for the electrification of motor vehicles, with the aim of the majority vehicles on Britain’s roads to be electrically powered by 2030, methodologies must be developed in order to recycle these batteries once they reach end of life in order to reclaim the critical elements. Not only must these strategies be able to recover key elements such as Co and Li efficiently but they must also be able to deal with the wide variety of chemistries currently implemented within the electric vehicle market. The ultimate aim of the ReLiB project is to develop short route recycling methods which can reclaim the material for reuse in pristine batteries. This poster will discuss the initial characterisation and purification/reclamation of electrode materials recovered from batteries that would be destined to enter the recycling chain. [1] A. Pehlken, S. Albach, T. Vogt, Is there a resource constraint related to lithium ion batteries in cars?, Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 22 (2017) 40–53. doi:10.1007/s11367-015-0925-4.