Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2023 - BET-17

ion) EV batteries. But there's a conundrum:
Battery companies are working to
reduce the amount of problematic, hardto-source
metals in their cells, which
has the potential to also reduce their
viability for cost-effective recycling.
Another approach, which has drawn
federal research funding, is direct recycling
or recovery, with the advantage
of retaining the intact cathode material.
According to Jeffrey Spangenberg, the
Materials Recycling Group Leader in the
applied materials division of Argonne
National Laboratory and Head of the
national ReCell Center R&D initiative,
the hydrometallurgy process destroys
the cathode. " If we can keep the cathode
as a cathode, then it can go right back
into a battery and save quite a bit of
money, " he explained. " But there are a
lot of challenges with it. For instance,
battery cars are likely to last 20 years,
in which time technology doesn't stand
still. We have to figure out how to make
old cathodes marketable. "
Problematic Materials
One key aspect of the looming materials
problem is the need for nickel, which
often gets overlooked as the focus is on
lithium and, to a lesser extent, on cobalt.
According to Sam Abuelsamid,
Principal Research Analyst for E-mobility
at Guidehouse Insights, for every 100
kilowatt-hours of battery in an EV, 61 to
66 kilograms of nickel are needed. If EV
penetration reached 100 percent (unlikely
until the 2040s), something like
5.8 million metric tons of nickel would
be needed annually if we rely solely on
nickel-rich batteries, he said. But according
to Statista, total global mining of
nickel produced only 2.7 metric tons in
2021. The industry would have to more
than double worldwide production -
unless recycling was a factor.
" Recycling is absolutely
Abuelsamid said. " We don't want to be
dumping batteries with these essential
metals into landfills. We need to recapture
as much as possible, because we will need
way more EV batteries than we currently
can build with available virgin materials. "
Henry Sanderson, a former Financial
Times commodities and mining reporter
who now works for Benchmark Mineral
Intelligence, is the author of Volt Rush,
Battery & Electrification Technology, March 2023
New battery cells proceeding through the final stage of the cell manufacturing process at the
GM-LG Energy Solution Ultima Cells factory in Ohio. (Image: Roger Mastroianni/GM)
a new book that focuses on the problematic
materials in Li-ion batteries. " We
have to open our eyes to the supply chain
behind the move away from fossil fuels, "
Sanderson told SAE Media. " It is hidden,
almost opaque, and currently mostly
controlled by China. And it involves more
than putting up some solar panels - it's
about raw materials and mining. "
Electolyte
Recovery
Cathode,
Anode, and Metals
Seperation
Lithium is heavily sourced through
evaporation processes in arid basins in
Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. According to
the Natural Resources Defense Council,
the practice " contributes to the ecological
damage of internationally recognized
wetlands and protected areas, where
water resources are already exhausted
for local and indigenous people. Many of
Battery
Shredding
CATHODE,
CARBON BLACK,
AND PVDF
END-OF-LIFE
BATTERIES
essential, "
Carbon Black
and PVDF
Removal
Battery
Use
Relithiation
and Upcycling
REJUVENATED
CATHODE
The EV battery 'circle of life' as seen by Argonne National Laboratory's ReCell R&D center.
(Image: ANL)
17
Battery
Manufacturing
D
I
R
E
C
T
E
R
C
Y
C
L
I
N
G

Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2023