Sustainable Electronics
End-of-life Li-ion battery sustainability: its crucial role over the coming years
By Conrad Nichols, technology analyst, IDTechEx L
ithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are used ubiquitously in daily life, and the demand for Li-ion batteries has continued to increase over the last decade, including in consumer electronics and portable devices, electric vehicles (EVs), and stationary energy storage systems. EVs have been responsible for most of this growth and is now the sector responsible for the largest percentage of total global Li-ion battery demand, with IDTechEx forecasting the market for EV batteries to exceed US$380 billion by 2034. As the demand for Li-ion batteries increases, so does the need to manage their sustainability throughout their entire lifecycle, including raw material extraction and processing, battery use or reuse and, importantly, at end-of-life (EOL). Some of these factors have also been a driving force behind the development of alternative energy storage technologies, in particular, in reducing the chance of supply bottlenecks to materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Na-ion batteries, for example, can offer relatively similar performance characteristics to Li-ion without the use of lithium or cobalt. Alternatively, redox flow batteries can make use of cheaper and more widely available materials such as zinc, iron, or organic compounds, though the majority of deployments are based on vanadium electrolytes. However, while technologies such as these can diversify material demand to more widely available and potentially less environmentally problematic ones, Li-ion demand is forecast to continue growing at a rapid pace. As such, Li-ion material supply and EOL management will remain critical. Find out more on IDTechEx’s latest research on Na-ion, RFBs, and alternative storage technologies at
www.IDTechEx.com/Energy.
Li-ion at end-of-life
Once a Li-ion battery has reached the end of its first life, several options can be considered. These include disposal, recycling, or repurposing for second-life applications. Disposing of Li-ion batteries could result in the leaking of flammable and hazardous
44 December/January 2024 Increase in global Li-ion battery demand. Source: IDTechEx
electrolyte into the environment and would waste the potential remaining value or materials contained within the battery. Repurposing (or remanufacturing) batteries for second-life applications typically sees Li-ion batteries from EVs being reused in stationary energy storage applications. This looks to maximize the value of the battery by using it in another less demanding
application. Recycling Li-ion batteries looks to recover valuable materials, which either form part of the cell or other components of the battery pack. Recycling will be important for battery manufacturers looking to mitigate against potential future raw material supply constraints, fluctuating raw material prices, and to domesticate material supply.
Li-ion battery recycling Li-ion battery recycling typically sees recyclers extracting materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper, and aluminium. The technologies used in Li-ion battery recycling are typically a combination of mechanical, hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical processing steps. Mechanical processing is employed prior to hydrometallurgical processing. Once a recycler receives a battery pack, this would require disassembling to obtain the individual Li-ion cells. These can then be mechanically crushed, forming powder known as black mass. Hydrometallurgical processing uses chemical reagents to selectively extract the valuable metals in the black mass, producing battery- grade metal salts (e.g., lithium carbonate, cobalt sulfate). These can then be processed further to manufacture precursor for cathode active material for new batteries. This is considerably cheaper than manufacturing new cathodes from virgin materials, and several life cycle analyses in the literature suggest that, in most cases, this causes less environmental impact too. Pyrometallurgical processing typically occurs in a shaft furnace
Li-ion battery circular economy. Source: IDTechEx Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk
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