Current and Prospective Li-Ion Battery Recycling and Recovery Processes

Abstract

The lithium ion (Li-ion) battery industry has been growing exponentially sinceits initial inception in the late 20th century. As battery materials evolve, theapplications for Li-ion batteries have become even more diverse. To date , themain source of Li-ion battery use varies from consumer portable electronics toelectric/hybrid electric vehicles. However , even with the continued rise of Li-ion battery development and commercialization, the recycling industry islagging ; approximately 95 % of Li-ion batteries are landfilled instead of recy-cled upon reaching end of life. Industrialized recycling processes are limitedand only capable of recovering secondary raw materials, not suitable for directreuse in new batteries. Most technologies are also reliant on high concentra-tions of cobalt to be profitable , and intense battery sortation is necessary priorto processing. For this reason, it is critical that a new recycling process becommercialized that is capable of recovering more valuable materials at ahigher efficiency. A new technology has been developed by the researchers atWorcester Polytechnic Institute which is capable of recovering LiNixMnyCozO2cathode material from a hydrometallurgical process, making the recyclingsystem as a whole more economically viable. By implementing a flexiblerecycling system that is closed-loop, recycling of Li-ion batteries will becomemore prevalent saving millions of pounds of batteries from entering the wastestream each year .