Sep 23, 2022 05:11 AM
https://knowablemagazine.org/article/tec...-batteries
EXCERPTS: . . . The 60,000-square-foot plant owned by the American Battery Technology Company is an optimistic endeavor to address the inconvenient environmental downside of electric vehicles — their resource-demanding battery packs. It is also a test of whether business leaders can live up to their promises to help build a circular economy: one in which materials are reused indefinitely, minimizing the need to continually pry more minerals from the earth.
[...] Researchers say that figuring out recycling could help to avoid the environmental risks of more mining and a buildup of hazardous battery waste — but reprocessing these batteries and refining the metals they contain for reuse is difficult and costly, and many remain skeptical of how truly circular that supply chain can ever be. “An electric vehicle battery is a very complex piece of technology with a lot of different components in it — so a recycling facility is going to be very complicated,” says Michael McKibben, a geologist at the University of California, Riverside. “In the long run, that’s going to be important, but in the short run, it’s got a ways to go.”
[...] Profitability is a major barrier. Though lithium-ion batteries contain valuable metals, they are challenging to take apart and the minerals are hard to extract from the tight layers of inorganic and organic compounds. By one estimate, the cost of recycled lithium is five times that of virgin lithium from brine-mining. Compare that with lead-acid batteries in combustion cars, which are almost entirely diverted from landfills and recycled...
[...] Another problem is that today’s main lithium-ion battery recycling processes are also not particularly efficient. A process used by many recyclers, pyrometallurgy, involves melting down the batteries and burning off plastic separators to extract the coveted metals. Pyrometallurgy is energy-intensive, emits toxic gases and can’t recover some valuable minerals, including lithium, at all.
With growing EV sales, a massive wave of dead electric car batteries will soon exacerbate recycling problems. [...] But to recycle batteries, these startups will need to ensure that the packs make it to their facilities to begin with — a challenge in and of itself because facilities that process junked cars today don’t have protocols for EVs, including how to handle the batteries.
[...] Ultimately, the success of battery recycling rests on whether it can be done cheaply enough. Even with improved technology, recyclers may face difficulties making their products cost-competitive with virgin minerals... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . The 60,000-square-foot plant owned by the American Battery Technology Company is an optimistic endeavor to address the inconvenient environmental downside of electric vehicles — their resource-demanding battery packs. It is also a test of whether business leaders can live up to their promises to help build a circular economy: one in which materials are reused indefinitely, minimizing the need to continually pry more minerals from the earth.
[...] Researchers say that figuring out recycling could help to avoid the environmental risks of more mining and a buildup of hazardous battery waste — but reprocessing these batteries and refining the metals they contain for reuse is difficult and costly, and many remain skeptical of how truly circular that supply chain can ever be. “An electric vehicle battery is a very complex piece of technology with a lot of different components in it — so a recycling facility is going to be very complicated,” says Michael McKibben, a geologist at the University of California, Riverside. “In the long run, that’s going to be important, but in the short run, it’s got a ways to go.”
[...] Profitability is a major barrier. Though lithium-ion batteries contain valuable metals, they are challenging to take apart and the minerals are hard to extract from the tight layers of inorganic and organic compounds. By one estimate, the cost of recycled lithium is five times that of virgin lithium from brine-mining. Compare that with lead-acid batteries in combustion cars, which are almost entirely diverted from landfills and recycled...
[...] Another problem is that today’s main lithium-ion battery recycling processes are also not particularly efficient. A process used by many recyclers, pyrometallurgy, involves melting down the batteries and burning off plastic separators to extract the coveted metals. Pyrometallurgy is energy-intensive, emits toxic gases and can’t recover some valuable minerals, including lithium, at all.
With growing EV sales, a massive wave of dead electric car batteries will soon exacerbate recycling problems. [...] But to recycle batteries, these startups will need to ensure that the packs make it to their facilities to begin with — a challenge in and of itself because facilities that process junked cars today don’t have protocols for EVs, including how to handle the batteries.
[...] Ultimately, the success of battery recycling rests on whether it can be done cheaply enough. Even with improved technology, recyclers may face difficulties making their products cost-competitive with virgin minerals... (MORE - missing details)