Closed Loop Recycling of Electric Vehicle Batteries to Enable Ultra-high Quality Cathode Powder

Abstract

The lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling market is becoming increasingly important because of the widespread use of LIBs in every aspect of our lives. Mobile devices and electric cars represent the largest application areas for LIBs. Vigorous innovation in these sectors is spurring continuous deployment of LIB powered devices, and consequently more and more LIBs will become waste as they approach end of life. Considering the significant economic and environmental impacts, recycling is not only necessary, but also urgent. The WPI group has successfully developed a closed-loop recycling process, and has previously demonstrated it on a relatively small scale 1 kg spent batteries per experiment. Here, we show that the closed-loop recycling process can be successfully scaled up to 30 kg of spent LIBs from electric vehicle recycling streams, and the recovered cathode powder shows similar (or better) performance to equivalent commercial powder when evaluated in both coin cells and single layer pouch cells. All of these results demonstrate the closed-loop recycling process has great adaptability and can be further developed into industrial scale.

Full recycling of spent lithium ion batteries with production of core-shell nanowires//exfoliated graphite asymmetric supercapacitor

“…The metals contained in the leach liquors purified at pH 4 and 6 were subsequently precipitated as carbonates and used for the production of two electrolytic bath solutions Rec-4 and Rec-6, respectively. The liquid stream obtained after filtration is a Lirich solution and could be employed for the recovery of lithium [41]. The baths composition obtained dissolving the two carbonates is reported in Table 1.…”

Progress in the sustainable recycling of spent lithium‐ion batteries

“…Close‐loop recycling of the spent LIBs is considered to be an ideal and specific recycling route. The whole process is started from a battery and ended in a battery, saving many steps of separation and purification, 41,42 especially suitable for the recycling of NCM‐based cathodes or a mixed type of cathodes 43–45 . At early stages, close‐loop recycling was usually carried out in either a coprecipitation or a sol‐gel process.…”

Transforming Materials into Practical Automotive Lithium‐Ion Batteries

“…a) NMC particles, Reproduced with permission. [ 27 ] Copyright 2019, Springer Nature; b) NMC electrode, Reproduced with permission. [ 28 ] Copyright 2015, American Electrochemical Society; c) How the materials‐processing‐performance bridge together, from left to right: electrode structure without binder, agglomerates from secondary particles and conducting carbon forming macro, meso, and micro pores structure, micro pores structure from primary particles, and electrochemical processes including diffusion layer, stern layer, SEI, and bulk reactions.…”