Electric Vehicle Lithium-ion Battery Recycling

It’s projected that electric vehicle on U.S. roads will reach more than 18 million by 2030, EV batteries typically need to be replaced every seven to 10 years for smaller vehicles and three to four for larger ones, such as buses and vans. which poses serious challenges regarding the disposal of the Lithium-ion batteries, because the batteries contain toxic chemicals that should not be placed into a landfills. Used retired EV batteries can be reused, repurposed (giving batteries a second life), recycled (includes materials recovery, which can be sold or used in new batteries).

It’s critical to recycle the Lithium-ion batteries to avoid environmental pollution.  Lithium-ion batteries contain toxic chemicals that should not be placed in landfills. When Lithium-ion batteries are placed in landfills they can release the toxic chemicals into the soil and the water supply if not treated properly. The batteries also contain flammable materials that can catch on fire, in some cases leading to an explosion.

Recycling retired batteries is a crucial solution to ensuring raw material supply security. Recovering metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper and aluminum which the materials can reuse and sold to generating additional revenue streams.

when an EV battery reaches the end of its useful life in vehicle service, it still retains between 70 and 80% of its original capacity. This means they could have a second life in a less-demanding application before they are ultimately recycled.

When used batteries that can no longer power cars or trucks can be repurposed for Lighter vehicles, such as forklifts and golfcarts as well as power storage applications, storage for solar-powered street lighting, grid-scale energy storage, Grid-scale energy storage, backup power.

As time progresses the second-life battery industry will be evolving over the next ten years.