Electric car battery recycling technologies have made huge strides in the last year, already reaching the implementation of recycling lines in large factories, which can recycle up to 95% of the components of a lithium-ion battery, for example. Now, these technologies are taking another big step forward, with scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden announcing a new recycling method they have developed that allows 98% of the lithium contained in a battery to be recycled and, for the first time, the recovery of 100% of the aluminum in the battery composition.
At the same time, the technology also recovers a much larger share of components such as cobalt, manganese and nickel. So, if we remember the article about the new Li-Cycle recycling plant in Germany that I published in August, it mentioned that the plant basically automatically “chops” lithium-ion batteries, separating the plastic from them, then heavy metals, such as steel, copper, and a large part of aluminum.
The so-called black mass remains after this process, which contains mainly lithium and cobalt, nickel, manganese and small traces of aluminum. Here, the processing of this black mass has now been finalized by researchers in Sweden.
As researcher Lea Rouquette explains, her team, led by chemistry and chemical engineering professor Martina Petranikova, applies oxalic acid to process that black mass. It is unclear if this black mass composition is identical to the one mentioned in the Li-Cycle process, as the Swedes mention that it contains copper and aluminum, metals that the Li-Cycle people say they mostly separate before getting the final black mass.
Scientists say that by treating with oxalic acid, made by introducing that black mass into the acidic environment and with slow agitation, after some time, the separation in liquid form of 98 % of the original lithium and 100% of aluminum, and the residues have a consistency similar to the original black mass, except that they contain manganese, nickel and cobalt.
What is new about this recycling process? First of all, no one had so far managed to extract 100% of aluminum from the composition of a battery, and the Swedes managed to do it. The share of 98% of extracted lithium is also a novelty, the previous figures being slightly lower. In addition, using oxalic acid for this process is more environmentally friendly because it is an organic acid from nature. This means a much smaller environmental impact in the recycling process but also low costs.
They also say that until now, the extraction of lithium and aluminum was only attempted at the end. At the same time, their process first extracts these substances and then follows the separation of cobalt from nickel and manganese from the remaining dust. And since these materials have different properties, their separation is much easier if lithium and aluminum have already been removed from the composition of that dust.
What should this mean for electric cars and the automotive world in general? The recycling of batteries through this method will be cheaper, more environmentally friendly, less energy-consuming and above all it will allow the extraction of lithium and other metals from the initial battery composition, which is already very close to 100%. When we reach 100%, we will no longer be able to say that the batteries pollute after serving an electric car because it will only be a problem of energy, that is, of electricity, consumed for the recycling process. And with electricity coming from renewable sources, simply at the end of a battery’s life cycle, it will be necessary to consume, for example, 2,000 kWh of electricity for the whole series of recycling processes, so that at the end we have a battery reborn in – a new one, for which we did not need to extract new lithium, or new cobalt from any mine in the world! It is already demonstrated by those from Li-Cycle that a battery produced from recycled lithium has exactly the same qualities as one produced from lithium extracted from the ground, here everything works like when remelting any other metals. And the Swedish researchers, through the discovery made now, have brought us all one step closer to this desired absolute 100% recycling of batteries.
