Page 46 - ESJ – ENERGY STORAGE JOURNAL

FEATURE: RECYCLING

From consumer electronics to electric vehicles and utility storage, there’s no
question that lithium batteries have had a dramatic impact on modern life,
most noticably in the past decade. But the problem is they don’t last forever
— and as millions are about to reach their end-of-life, the question is what
on earth we do with them. Debbie Mason spoke to the companies and
scientists who are working out the answer.

Debunking recycling

myths of lithium ion

he booming demand for electric vehi- ium, base and other metals and graphite),”
cles, with countries in Europe and In- states the report.
Tdia setting targets for all new cars to be And that’s just Australia, and it’s just the be-
electric in the next few decades, the issue of ginning.
recycling the batttery packs is a growing prob-
lem the US Department of Energy calls ‘criti- The clock is ticking
cally important’. Executive director of NAATBatt James Green-
“Global EV sales are expected to reach berger says the clock is ticking while the in-
30 million by 2030, up from 1.1 million in dustry works out what to do. Lithium battery
2017,” says a spokesman from the DoE. “This recycling is in its infant stage, he says, and the
growth, as well as increased demand for con- volume is low.
sumer and stationary uses, is expected to dou- “Batteries are not yet reaching end-of-life,”
ble the demand for lithium ion batteries by he says. “A lot of what is coming in is manu-
2025 and quadruple the demand by 2030. De- facturing scrap, but we do expect it to go up
mand for global production of lithium, cobalt, very quickly as the number of EVs rises. But
manganese, nickel and graphite will grow at unlike lead batteries, where someone will al-
similar rates. ways pay for a used lead battery, the output
“Currently, lithium ion batteries are col- from lithium batteries is for the time being not
lected and recycled at a rate of less than 5%.” sufficient to pay for the recycling process itself.
It appears to be even worse in Australia. LIB “If the technology doesn’t change there will
waste is already growing at a rate of more be a tipping fee, we will have to pay some-
than 20% a year, according to the April 2018 one to take the battery away and it’s likely to
CSIRO report Lithium battery Recycling in be assessed against the buyer of the EV in the
Australia: Current status and opportunities form of a deposit or fee upfront, and this will
for developing a new industry. not be good for EV business.
In 2016, it says, 3,300 tonnes of LIB waste “Probably the leading candidate is direct re-
was generated — of which just 2% was col- cycling, cathode to cathode — take the waste
lected and exported for offshore recycling. battery and rather than reducing it to the base
LIB waste generation is forecast to grow elements of cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium,
to between 100,000 and 188,000 tonnes by keep the cathode materials together and recy-
2036, the report predicts. “Unfortunately, the cle them, getting a new cathode material out
majority of Australian LIB waste is disposed of the back end that a maker of cathode mate-
of in landfill. rials could use directly. This is not a new tech-
“This constitutes an economic loss to the nique, but it needs to be refined.”
Australian economy due to the estimated po- Greenberger says this has been done ‘at some
tential recoverable value of between A$813 bench level’ by the CATL subsidiary Brunp, as
million ($570 million) and A$3 billion based well as one or two other Chinese battery com-
on current commodity prices (of cobalt, lith- panies.

“Global EV sales are expected to reach 30 million by 2030, up from 1.1 million in 2017. This
growth, as well as increased demand for consumer and stationary uses, is expected to
double the demand for lithium-ion batteries by 2025 and quadruple the demand by 2030”
– US Department of Energy

44 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2019 www.energystoragejournal.com