Key issues for Li-ion battery recycling

Concerted efforts by stakeholders could overcome the hurdles and enable a viable recycling system for automotive LIBs by the time many of them go out of service. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) were commercialized in the early 1990s and gained popularity first in consumer electronics, then more recentl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:MRS energy & sustainability 2018-12, Vol.5 (1), p.12, Article 12
Main Authors: Gaines, Linda, Richa, Kirti, Spangenberger, Jeffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cobalt
Commercialization
Costs
Economics
Economics and Management
Electric vehicles
End of life
Energy Materials
Energy Policy
Landfills
Lithium
Lithium-ion batteries
Market penetration
Materials Engineering
Materials Science
Nickel
Prices
Raw materials
Rechargeable batteries
Recycling
Recycling systems
Renewable and Green Energy
Review
Strategic materials
Sustainable Development
Waste disposal sites
Waste management
Waste streams
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Concerted efforts by stakeholders could overcome the hurdles and enable a viable recycling system for automotive LIBs by the time many of them go out of service. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) were commercialized in the early 1990s and gained popularity first in consumer electronics, then more recently for electric vehicle (EV) propulsion, because of their high energy and power density and long cycle life. Their rapid adoption brings with it the challenge of end-of-life waste management. There are strong arguments for LIB recycling from environmental sustainability, economic, and political perspectives. Recycling reduces material going into landfills and avoids the impacts of virgin material production. LIBs contain high-value materials like cobalt and nickel, so recycling can reduce material and disposal costs, leading to reduced EV costs. Battery recycling can also reduce material demand and dependence on foreign resources, such as cobalt from Democratic Republic of the Congo, where much production relies on armed aggression and child labor. Several companies are finding ways to commercialize recycling of the increasingly diverse LIB waste stream. Although Pb-acid battery recycling has been successfully implemented, there are many reasons why recycling of LIBs is not yet a universally well-established practice. Some of these are technical constraints, and others involve economic barriers, logistic issues, and regulatory gaps. This paper first builds a case as to why LIBs should be recycled, next compares recycling processes, and then addresses the different factors affecting LIB recycling to direct future work towards overcoming the barriers so that recycling can become standard practice.
ISSN:2329-2229
2329-2237
DOI:10.1557/mre.2018.13