(Invited) Working Towards a Cost-effective Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Process

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles are just now starting to reach their end-of-life. There are several options to address these end-of-life batteries, landfilling or recycling. Recycling is a desirable option because of the benefits it can bring, including reductions in life-cycle costs, reduced energy usage, lower environmental impacts, and decreased dependence on scarce or imported materials. The options available now for recycling of lithium-ion batteries are not optimal, so research and development (R&D) is needed to make economic processes available for use by the time large volumes of batteries from electric vehicles and other uses go out of service. By then these battery materials could be 20 year-old formulations with little residual value from its structure or contained elements. In particular, cathode formulations are evolving towards varied morphologies, emphasizing formulations that contain reduced quantities of cobalt (the valuable element sought in most current recycling operations), reducing the incentive for recycling with standard pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical methods. Several key questions must be addressed by R&D. Most of these focus on the cathode, which is the most valuable form of material that can be recovered. How can the cathode get separated from the other cell components? Can they be recovered? How can optimum cathode function get restored? Can we separate one cathode type from another? Can we modify the cathode composition or morphology to update it for reuse? This presentation will provide a summary of Argonne’s work to create a feasible battery recycling system.