Feasibility assessment of remanufacturing, repurposing, and recycling of end of vehicle application lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Purpose: Lithium-ion batteries that are commonly used in electric vehicles and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles cannot be simply discarded at the end of vehicle application due to the materials of which they are composed. In addition the US Department of Energy has estimated that the cost per kWh of new lithium-ion batteries for vehicle applications is four times too high, creating an economic barrier to the widespread commercialization of plug-in electric vehicles. (USDOE, 2014). Thus, reducing this cost by extending the application life of these batteries appears to be necessary. Even with an extension of application life, all batteries will eventually fail to hold a charge and thus become unusable. Thus environmentally safe disposition must be accomplished. Addressing these cost and environmental issues can be accomplished by remanufacturing end of vehicle life lithium ion batteries for return to vehicle applications as well as repurposing them for stationary applications such as energy storage systems supporting the electric grid. In addition, environmental safe, "green" disposal processes are required that include disassembly of batteries into component materials for recycling. The hypotheses that end of vehicle application remanufacturing, repurposing, and recycling are each economic are examined. This assessment includes a forecast of the number of such batteries to ensure sufficient volume for conducting these activities.

Accelerated energy capacity measurement of lithium-ion cells to support future circular economy strategies for electric vehicles

“…Different mitigation strategies for lowering life-cycle cost through recycling and remanufacturing have been discussed. The financial incentives associated with recycling different lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery chemistries is, however, not clear and is highly dependent on the chemistry employed [12,15]. The Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of electrified vehicles has been widely reported [14,15,[23][24][25].…”

“…the Nissan Leaf or the BMW i3), which require larger batteries in the order of 24 kWh and 22 kWh respectively. Research presented in [12] predicts that in 2035 the number of available EOL batteries will range from 1.4 million in their pessimistic forecast to 6.8 million in the optimistic forecast with a middle forecast of 3.8 million.…”

“…Research by [12] states that a 50% reduction in battery cost is required to equalize the economics of owning a PHEV as compared to a conventionally-fueled vehicle. Conversely, [15] show that the EV powertrain cost must reduce from circa: $600-700 kWh -1 to $200 kWh -1 to achieve parity with comparable internal combustion engine (ICE) technology.…”

“…(1 ) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 6 End-of-Life (EOL) for the vehicle's ESS has been defined as the battery having a SOH of 80% [7,[10][11][12][13]. However, a number of studies highlight the apparent arbitrary nature of this threshold value.…”

“…The potential volume of EVs that exists within the market is a key measure when considering different EOL strategies. This is discussed with [10,12], within the context of the installed energy capacity for new V2G applications and 2 nd -life grid storage solutions. Within the context of remanufacturing, the potential volume of electrified vehicles underpins the security of supply for the core.…”