Faraday Institution researchers working on the recycling of lithium-ion batteries at the Universities of Leicester and Birmingham have developed a new method to recover materials from end-of-life EV batteries. The new process uses ultrasonic waves to separate valuable material from the electrodes. The researchers say it delivers a higher purity of recovered materials compared to… Read more »
Volkswagen has opened its first EV battery recycling facility to recover raw materials such as lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt in a closed loop, together with aluminum, copper and plastics, achieving a recycling rate of more than 90% over the long term. The unique feature of the plant in Salzgitter, Germany is that it only… Read more »
The European Commission has approved a second Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) to support innovation throughout the battery value chain. The European Battery Innovation project calls for 12 member states—Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden—to provide up to €2.9 billion in funding in the coming years…. Read more »
Swedish battery maker Northvolt is launching a new program, Revolt, that is devoted to recycling lithium-ion batteries. It plans to bring a pilot recycling plant online in Västerås, Sweden, in 2020, next to its existing manufacturing plant. The plant will handle NMC and NCA Li-ion chemistries. It will serve as a platform for developing and… Read more »
A new solution from Fortum, a Finnish clean-energy company, increases the amount of material in Li-ion batteries that can be recycled to more than 80%, according to the company. The current EU-mandated recycling rate is only 50% of the total weight of the battery. First the company makes the used batteries safe for mechanical treatment,… Read more »
The ABB FIA Formula E Championship has announced a partnership with Belgian materials technology and recycling group Umicore to recycle the Li-ion battery units and cells used during the first two seasons of the racing series. The batteries from Formula E’s first two seasons, which were built by Williams Advanced Engineering, have been collected and… Read more »
What’s going to happen to all those lithium-ion batteries after they die? What’s the best way to recycle them? A new model developed at the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory allows industry insiders to assess the money and energy savings from recycling EV batteries. ReCell, a closed-loop battery recycling model, offers preliminary estimates of total costs… Read more »
Companies around the world, including Nissan, Renault, Daimler, BMW and Siemens, are investigating ways to reuse EV batteries after they retire from the road. Bloomberg analysts recently predicted that by 2025, there will be 29 GWh of used EV batteries available, and that a third of these will enjoy second lives in the stationary storage… Read more »
Demand for lithium is on the rise, and the rush is on for new sources of the light white stuff. Researchers in Finland are developing new methods to extract lithium from natural brine that promise more efficiency and greater purity. Most lithium is produced from salt lake deposits. Brine is pumped up and concentrated by… Read more »