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FEATURE: RECYCLING

past the research stage – it simply needs the
materials to work with, but there just aren’t “They all talk about recycling batteries like it’s a slam
any batteries yet.
“There are a lot of people trying to find the dunk, but they’re not transparent about it” – Reaugh
recycling solution, I think some are coming a
little late to the game, we have a lot of ex- and hydrogen peroxide and those types of
pertise and our mining experience has really chemicals. We’re lucky to have a lab that’s got
helped us because a lot of the equipment we battery expertise and they’ve worked on all of
use in mineral processing is similar,” he says. those things — they’re not user friendly.
The company’s CEO, Larry Reaugh, says “Someone said that the recycling of lithium
there are lots of other companies claiming batteries would be a $23 billion business in
they recycle lithium batteries. “They all talk 2025. Actually there’s room for a lot of people
about recycling batteries like it’s a slam dunk,” — and I think it’s reached that flexion point
he says. “But they’re not transparent about it. where it’s going to be a runaway trade over
We know that some of them are using solvents the next decade.” The clock is ticking.

LITHIUM BATTERY RECYCLING HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE, JUST NOT HERE — HANS ERIC MELIN

enables them to crush the battery cobalt and the nickel.” The growth in EVs is going to change
without it exploding. Melin says there are recyclers in the situation on a massive scale, says
“There are machines which can cut Europe and North America – but the dif- Melin.
the batteries open to get out the anode ference is that there is much greater de- “Today about 80% of the batteries
and the cathode but normally the bat- mand for the materials in China, where coming in to be recycled are from elec-
tery will be crushed. Most recyclers the ballooning battery manufacturing tronics,” he says. “By 2025 the propor-
are targeting the cathode, which is an industry in the past decade means two tion will be down to 40%. Another 40%
aluminium collector, and you want to thirds of all lithium batteries in the world will be different kinds of vehicles — light
get out that powder to get black mass. are made there. duty vehicles and trucks, which will
This sometimes contains only cath- “It’s such a huge part of the market. hugely change the market.
ode powder but normally has graphite There is Tesla in Nevada, some being “On the end-of-life side the change will
from the anode. This powder is then made in Japan and South Korea, and all not be as quick, because the batteries
taken out and put into a hydro pro- the rest are made in China,” says Melin. replaced in cars will last much longer
cess. Leaching may then be used to “China is importing all the materi- than they do in an electronic device.
leach out the different materials using als — the lithium, cobalt, nickel — the “In EV batteries, the first warranties
acid like hydrochloric acid, and liquid only material they use from domestic were for six years, then extended to
extraction is used to separate the ma- resources is graphite, so recycling has eight years — and now it’s expected
terials – unless they are not separated, always been a very important part of the that the battery will outlive the vehicle.
and kept in the same mixture as it was build-up of the industry and it’s a very “Then second life for these batteries
at the beginning. important source of materials.” means they will be used in energy stor-
“In China, recyclers are paying for Melin cites the cobalt miner and pro- age applications, so a lot of the bat-
all batteries. They are even paying for ducer Huayou Cobalt, which recycles teries on the market now won’t reach
lithium iron phosphate batteries, which 65,000 tonnes of lithium batteries a end-of-life until 2027/8. It doesn’t mean
are the least valuable Li-ion chemistry year. CATL subsidiary Brunp last year they won’t be recycled — they will be,
because they don’t contain cobalt recycled 30,000 tonnes, and Gansu and in an efficient market, like in China
or nickel. That’s why they require big High Power 10,000 tonnes. This is and South Korea, they have a positive
scale, and Chinese companies are more than Europe and North America value right through the entire chain.
recycling them. They’re in a good posi- combined, he says. “It will get to the stage where you will
tion – they want the lithium and they Huayou has its own mines in the pay to get hold of the battery, not pay to
don’t have to compete with the other Congo, and has recently repositioned dispose of it, as is the case in Europe
recyclers who are more targeting the itself as a cathode maker. today.”

Automized battery dissassembly plant in China. Right: Black mass awaiting processing in Chinese plant.

www.energystoragejournal.com Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2019 • 49