As the EV market has stagnated in recent years, the market outlook surrounding recycling is also being affected. Among the many options envisioned for what kind of battery supply chain should be established in Europe and the US, recycling occupies an important position. This presentation will introduce the challenges and opportunities to realize the Closed Loop battery supply chain in Europe and the US, including a comparison with Asia.

This presentation will cover scrap battery forecast, black mass pricing, and shredding vs. refining capacities.

Accomplishing the full circularity is a challenge today. Taking a chance in a market to be a leader is a real leap of faith. How do you convince your management to start a circularity project? You need to balance feed stock markets, logistics, technology, and partnerships. This is what we have learned and what we want to make you benefit from so you can become a circularity agent.

Several studies estimate a tremendous increase of energy-storage demand which causes a strong increase of critical raw-material demand (especially for Co, Ni, Li, natural graphite, and others). Secondary raw materials from the recycling of spent batteries are considered as a potential source to tackle at least a certain fraction of future demand. But there are still challenges for the recycling of used batteries today and in the future.

We'll discuss how proper design and engineering choices can boost recyclability and end-of-life strategies, touching on the legislative environment, material selection, and mechanical design, as well as manufacturing techniques. Furthermore, our discussion will dive into AVL’s benchmarking program, where we will share concrete examples of how design choices significantly influence end-of-life options and CO2 footprint, investigated during our extensive battery tear-down analysis.

Water-using recycling processes—such as wet crushing and electrohydraulic fragmentation—generate large amounts of contaminated process water, resulting in increased costs for the disposal of hazardous waste and safety guidelines. To improve wastewater management, safety, and sustainability of water-assisted recycling processes, comprehensive knowledge of the battery components in the water are required. Analytical techniques can play an important role during these processes including wet shredding processes, wastewater management, and analytical techniques.

Primobius’ innovative recycling technology for LiB integrates shredding and beneficiation to produce Black Mass, which is then processed in a Hydrometallurgy hub. This integrated system efficiently recovers critical metals, minimizes environmental impact, and supports the circular economy by providing sustainable inputs for new battery production.

Dr. Sloop discusses recycling batteries with Cathode-Healing, along with inertization of lithium-ion, design for recycling with PFAS-free components. The approaches are presented in counterpoint of current plans to ship dangerous goods for recycling, then use hydrometallurgy or pyrometallurgy to repurify cathode metals, and resynthesize cathodes for every battery lifecycle. The massive technological and planning gaps have existential implications for batteries and decarbonization that can only be solved with Cathode-Healing involved in the life cycle. The triple-threat of design for recycling, battery inertization, and Cathode-Healing is presented as a flexible, scalable approach to help make energy storage affordable for everyone.

Discharging is performed to ensure safety during a recycling process and can be done to different levels. The effects of over-discharging, e.g., formation of copper on the cathode or coating of the separator, have an influence on the quality of the recycling products, e.g., black mass or metal fractions. Examination of whether the new EU regulations can be met with different chemistries (NMC, NCA, LFP) were investigated.

During mechanical recycling of lithium-ion batteries, a fine fraction, black mass is produced. This fraction consists of the detached coating of the electrodes and small quantities of impurities. Yield and composition of the black mass are influenced by the preceding processing steps, discharge, comminution, drying, and pyrolysis. This presentation provides an overview of the process settings that affect the black mass properties and outlines how to optimize yield and quality.

The paradigm of solvent selection presentation will compare several diluents and provide an overview of the properties to take into account in its selection. Diluents are usually the last parameter to be optimized, but the right diluent is a tradeoff between extraction efficiency, process robustness, and for sure safety, environmental concerns, and cost.

Due to their widespread adoption and limited lifespan, the imminent proliferation of spent lithium-ion batteries poses an environmental threat and exacerbates resource wastage. Addressing this issue is essential to curbing environmental pollution and optimizing resource utilization. Therefore, recycling valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries has garnered societal importance. While techniques exist for recycling these batteries, they predominantly retrieve only high-value metals and elements. To enable greater elemental recovery and less resource waste, a robust pre-treatment technology is required. This study delineates the utilization of electrostatic and magnetic separation processes across four distinct lithium-ion battery formats and chemistries. The synergistic application of these two separation technologies maximizes the efficiency of materials separation and pre-treatment, which enhances both recovery rates and material purity. These pre-treatment methods thereby facilitate the provision of high-purity materials which can be directly processed back into battery components, providing a secondary critical mineral ore for the battery industry whilst reducing secondary pollution concerns.

Froth flotation holds potential for separating cathode- and anode-active material in lithium-ion battery recycling and therefore increasing the recycling rate. Effective flotation separation requires removal of the organic binder (PVDF) from active particles' surfaces. This study investigates pre-treatment of an industrial black mass with the bio-based solvent Cyrene to efficiently remove the binder and compares it to the pyrolysis route.

In this talk, we will present data showing that the physio-chemical attributes and electrochemical performance of recycled graphite are on-par with pristine commercial graphite anode active materials. We will highlight the environmental, supply chain, and economic benefits for recycling graphite from lithium-ion batteries. Finally, we will discuss how recycled graphite can be a viable anode active material for Li-ion batteries.

The global growing demand for batteries has led to the increasing interest for Li-ion batteries recycling. Players on the market need to stay ahead of the technological trends and to understand their competitive environment. In this context, patent landscape analysis is a complementary approach to market research to acquire a deeper knowledge about competitors’ strategies. Through patent landscape analysis, we will uncover IP trends and key IP players, with a focus on cathode active materials.