The Assessment of Battery of Electromobility Recycling:
Technical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects
Introduction
Every second there is a huge amount of traffic for passengers and goods on the road. Demand of mobility is growing rapidly worldwide. Not only Fossil energy resources are running out and traffic-related greenhouse gas emissions is critically changing the climate of world, but also traffic-related noise and air pollutants are rising. Those consequences have encouraged the development of new propulsion technologies in the automobile sector.
The electrification of vehicles is one of the biggest keys to reducing CO2 emissions and solving the looming climate crisis. Their engines are also hardly audible, and their noise levels determined by speed. Although the initial investment in an electric driving is quite large, you then save when driving because electricity is cheaper than fuel from petrol stations. Today there are more than 1.2 billion vehicles worldwide, and over 900 million of these are passenger cars. This figure is expected to rise to two billion by 2035. Therefore, electric vehicles become more popular and rapid growth in the market for them is imperative. But they are bringing another major challenge from environmental and social to global economic with it. Naturally, this increased numbers of electric vehicles, combined with a serious waste-management challenge for recyclers at end-of-life, lead to a waste disposal and recycling issue. Recycling of spent batteries may present an opportunity to reduce the need of require access to strategic elements and critical materials for key components in electric-vehicle manufacture. Therefore, and due to hazards and high weights, it is essential to focus on battery recycling efforts. In this assessment, current state of battery recycling approaches, technical, economic and social aspects and impacts including their advantages and shortcomings are summarized and evaluated [4,5].
The environmental impact of a petroleum-based infrastructure, the finite nature of fossil fuel supply as well as advances in battery technology, fuel cells, electric motors, and power electronics have led to an increasing interest in hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), fuel cell (FCEV), and electric vehicles (EV) in recent years. Although there is a lively debate about competing technologies, the necessary infrastructure, time scales for market penetration, environmental impact, safety aspects, etc., most experts agree that these vehicles will play a significant role in our future mobility. As HEVs, FCEVs and EVs introduce new components, the spread of electromobility will lead to major changes in vehicle recycling practices within the upcoming years. The crucial one in these components is traction battery [1].
Technical aspects of battery recycling
Traction batteries are those used for the propulsion of any type of electric vehicle. Traction batteries installed in today’s (H)EVs are almost exclusively either of the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) or LIB type. Due to their higher capacities, LIBs increasingly replace NiMH batteries. Nevertheless, they will stay in the HEV market for a while [10]. The demand for large lithium-ion batteries (LiB) will increase the most, rising to around 1,000 GWh by 2025 and at least
double that by 2030. This suggests annual growth rates of 35 percent for lithium and more than 50 percent for nickel [3].
The danger potential of electromobility can primarily be ascribed to the use of high-voltage lithium-ion or NiMH batteries and to the high-voltage systems in the vehicles. These systems are formed by the connection of discrete lithium cells (with low voltages) in series for the required power to be attained. The key raw materials to produce battery cells are currently defined as critical raw materials by the European Commission due to their economic importance and supply risk. These are mainly cobalt (NiMH and LIBs), light REEs (NiMH batteries and NdFeB magnets), dysprosium of the heavy REEs (NdFeB magnets), as well as gallium, antimony and palladium of the platinum group metals, which are or might be used in (future) power electronics [7].
Recycling is thus gaining new significance as a topic of interest. The recycling of used electric batteries offers huge potential that has barely been exploited to date. Legislators are also exerting pressure: If the EU Commission, whose new Battery Directive is to be transposed into national law by 2024, gets its way, a much larger proportion of materials will have to be recycled in the future. The Commission wants car and battery manufacturers to establish a comprehensive system of battery collection and recycling. The stated aim is for around half the weight of lithium-ion batteries (LiB) to be recycled [3].
We can name two main methods for industrial recycling. Both methods require the waste to be shredded into small pieces, and then the following alternatives can be applied.
One is the pyrometallurgical process, in which a high-temperature furnace is used to reduce the component metal oxides to an alloy of Co, Cu, Fe and Ni. The high temperatures involved mean that the batteries are ‘smelted’, and the process, which is a natural progression from those used for other types of batteries, is already established commercially for consumer LIBs. It is particularly advantageous for the recycling of general consumer LIBs, which currently tends to be geared towards an imperfectly sorted feedstock of cells (indeed, the batteries can be processed along with other types of waste to improve the thermodynamics and products obtained), and this versatility is also valuable with respect to electric-vehicle LIBs. As the metal current collectors aid the smelting process, the technique has the important advantage that it can be used with whole cells or modules, without the need for a prior passivation step. [3,9].
Another alternative is to use hydrometallurgical processes where the metallic component and the recycled metal solutions are dissolved by leaching. Hydrometallurgical treatments involve the use of aqueous solutions to leach the desired metals from cathode material. By far the most common combination of reagents reported is H2SO4/H2O2 [3].
The big issues to be addressed with all hydro-metallurgical processes are the volumes of solvents required, the speed of delamination, the costs of neutralization and the likelihood of cross-contamination of materials. Although shredding is a fast and efficient method of rendering the battery materials safe, mixing the anode and cathode materials at the start of the recycling process complicates downstream processing.
These methods are still improving; however, the political and economic incentive is essential to pursue the technical developments in battery recycling. In Europe, (H)EV recycling is primarily
regulated by Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles which covers aspects along the life cycle of a vehicle as well as aspects related to treatment operations. Of particular importance in the context of this article are the current (starting in 2015) minimum reuse, recycling and recovery targets of 85% (reuse + recycling) and 95% (reuse + recovery), respectively, as well as the de-pollution of fluids and specific components such as batteries. The further treatment of batteries is regulated by Directive 2006/66/EC. According to this directive, traction batteries belong to the group of “industrial batteries”. Battery recycling processes for industrial LIB and NiMH batteries must meet a minimum recycling efficiency of 50% by average weight. The EU has sufficient capacity for polymetallurgical recycling for 2020 [1].Viewed against the target for recovered materials as laid down in the EU Battery Directive, although the mentioned different methods are applied in industrial scale, there are some drawbacks still need to be overcome: lithium and manganese cannot be recovered efficiently, so it is therefore not particularly economical. The situation is different with hydrometallurgical methods, which for the first time bring a closed loop recycling system within reach. High recovery rates have already been achieved in pilot projects under optimum conditions. Additionally, the quality of the recycled material, due to the excess treatments it has been through, is not as good as the newly produced material [6,8,9].
Economic aspects of battery recycling
Battery production becomes an essential part of the industrial value chain worldwide. Because battery applications are becoming the norm in the context of the energy transition, in the context of electromobility, but also in many other industrial areas. Battery production, especially the lithium business is booming.
Nevertheless, Battery recycling is energy intensive. Reports reveal that it takes 6 to 10 times more energy to reclaim metals from some recycled batteries than from mining. The exception is the lead acid battery, from which lead can be extracted easily and reused without elaborate processes. To some extent, nickel from NiMH can also be recovered economically if available in large quantities. Each country sets its own rules and adds tariffs to the purchase price of a new battery to make recycling feasible [7].
The cost of recycling should be attractive enough to encourage companies to take action for investments. Additionally, the quality of the recycled product is not as good as the newly produced materials, which means the end products originated from these recycles can’t be introduced to the market with comparable prices to virgin materials.
Due to poor metal retrieval value, Li-ion commands a higher recycling fee than most other battery types. However, recycling Li-ion batteries is not yet profitable must be government subsidized. There is an incentive to recover costly cobalt. No recycling technology exists today that can produce pure enough lithium for a second use in batteries. Lithium for batteries is mined; secondhand lithium is used for lubricants, glass, ceramics and other applications [2].
The flat cost to recycle a ton of batteries is $1,000 to $2,000; Europe hopes to achieve a cost per ton of $300. Ideally, this would include transportation, but moving and handling the goods is
expected to double the overall cost. To simplify transportation, Europe is setting up several smaller processing plants in strategic geographic locations. Based on a recycling rate of 80 percent after ten years of battery use, the recycling market's profit pool (based on the costs of mechanical treatment and hydrometallurgical processes) could amount to EUR 0.7 billion to EUR 1.4 billion in 2030 and EUR 2.4 billion to EUR 4.8 billion in 2040 according to our calculations. Assuming a volume of 1.7 million tons of batteries being recycled in 2030, 250 thousand tons of active materials (nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium) could also be recovered. This corresponds to around 20 to 30 percent of the EU's cobalt and nickel demand [2,3].
As the volume of discarded batteries increases, new technologies are being tried to make recycling profitable without the support of agencies and governments. The economic benefits of these recycling processes are therefore very promising.
Environmental and Social aspects of battery recycling
Expanding our thinking for a moment, let us explore the global benefits of recycling, since we only have one planet and need to share and conserve its resources. The waste, and thus the recycling as well, is more important than ever in today’s conditions. Recycling benefits everyone. It enables the reuse of materials that would otherwise be used and discarded. Recycling promotes the “take, make and reuse” circular model that will help to carry all of us into a thriving or sustainable future. Dealing with this waste is also a social and environmental problem.
There is a growing middle class around the world, and they will want the modern amenities that people developed countries enjoy, including electronics powered by batteries. Well, there is a finite amount of natural resources and a finite amount of space to build landfills to support the 7 billion people that occupy earth. According to by 2030 that number increases to 9 billion with 3 billion new middle-class consumers. It is estimated that 3 billion batteries are thrown away each year by Americans, a population of 323 million people. Running the math on 3 billion new battery users, using at a rate of Americans that 3 billion batteries thrown away annually turns into nearly 28 billion batteries thrown away annually [7].
Recycling, in general, is an important element in environmental preservation. Yet, the recycling process itself is also not a perfectly clean process, it consumes energy, and in some cases use of toxic chemicals, etc.. Thus, it is preferable to adjust the consumption levels and focus on environmentally friendly options, rather than relying on recycling alone. This is again, can be guided by policies onto society to consume consciously. The extended producer responsibility policies are a good example of such policies. The mentioned policy enforces producers to consider the whole life cycle of the products, including recycling, rather than just focusing on selling the product [6].
Conclusion
The electric-vehicle revolution is set to change the automotive industry radically. The introduction of electromobility is causing major challenge for the recycling industry. Regarding the development of recycling concepts for the individual components, there is a strong research focus on traction batteries due to their high weights, energy contents, and potential dangers.
However, recent technical developments and ongoing improvements of the recycling processes enabled industry scale battery recycling facilities to be built. With increasing environmental consciousness and implemented recycling policies, the concept of recycling getting more favored among society, as well as getting more feasible economically.
References
1- Elwert T.,Roemer F., Article, “Current Developments and Challenges in the Recycling of Key Components of (Hybrid) Electric Vehicles”, October 2015, DOI: 10.3390
2- Battery University Group, Article, “How to Recycle Batteries”, September 2019.
3- Bernhart W., Report, “Battery recycling is a key market of the future: is it also an opportunity for europe?”, November 2019.
4- White C., Thompson B., Swan L., “Repurposed electric vehicle battery performance in second-life electricity grid frequency regulation service”, Journal of Energy Storage, Volume 28, April 2020, DOI: 101278
5- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), Brochure, “Electromobility–What does it mean for me?”, May 2019.
6- Adams R.D. et al., Article “Recycling of Reinforced Plastics”, January 2014, Applied Composite Materials, DOI:10.1007/s10443-013-9380-1
7- Battery Solutions, LLC, Article, “How are Batteries Recycled?”, https://www.batterysolutions.com/recycling-information/how-are-batteries-recycled/
8- Ahmadi, L., Young, S. B., Fowler, M., Fraser, R. A. & Achachlouei, M. A. A cascaded life cycle: reuse of electric vehicle lithium-ion battery packs in energy storage systems. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 22, 111–124 (2017).
9- Harper G., et al., Review “Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles”, November 2019, Nature 575, pages75–86(2019).
10- Warner, J. Lithium-Ion Battery Packs for EVs. In Lithium-Ion Batteries; Elsevier: Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2014; pp. 127–150
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