The Lifecycle of a Lithium-ion Battery

As electric vehicles proliferate, so will the used Lithium-ion batteries. Circular Energy Storage Consultancy forecasts that 400,000 tonnes of Li-ion batteries will reach the end of life as soon by the year 2022. Sending these batteries to landfills will create hazardous and inflammable waste as cobalt, nickel, manganese, and other metals can leak from the casing of buried batteries and contaminate soil and groundwater. These batteries need to be safely transferred for repurposing and recycling.

For a video explanation of the subject - https://youtu.be/Xs3yzlqm6RQ

Efficient lifecycle management of the Lithium-ion batteries ensures that batteries are completely used and then efficiently recycled to extract material that can be reused. Li-ion batteries have great potential to be a part of circular economy as they can be recycled to their original purpose at the end of life.

There are 4 stages in the lifecycle of a Li-ion battery:

1. First Life – Refers to the original application the battery was produced for e.g. an electric vehicle. An electric vehicle battery is expected to last up to 5-10 years (depending on factors such as climatic conditions and battery handling among others ) before they need replacement. Once the battery performance degrades below its first life use, it is replaced by a new battery pack. For the spent battery pack, there exist three options – Disposal, Repurposing, Recycling. Ideally, disposal should only be done in case a battery has been systematically assessed to be damaged or unfit for reuse or recycling.

2. Second Life – There is still considerable storage capacity (70-80%) left in a battery at the end of its first life. The battery can be re-manufactured to be used for a less intensive application that requires less frequent battery cycling. e.g. a stationary energy storage system for energy generated from a solar power plant. An accurate estimation of remaining useful life and state of health (SoH) of the used battery is required to direct the repurposed battery to a suitable 2nd life application. In 2025, more than 50 GWh of batteries from electric vehicles will reach their end of first life globally. This number is expected to increase to 200 GWh per year by 2030. This presents a huge energy storage potential, considering the US uses a few terawatts of electricity storage over a year. The life-span of a Li-ion battery can be prolonged for up to 20 years through re-purposing, thus delaying the need to dispose of the battery.

3. End of Life – At the end of battery life, expert handling is required for collection and safe logistics to a recycling facility.

4. Recycling – Recycling process dismantles the battery and recaptures the valuable constituent materials. The extracted metal and mineral components like Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel, Aluminium and Copper can again be used in the manufacture of new batteries. This is popularly known as urban mining. Recycling of Li-ion batteries is a capital intensive process with dependencies on economies of scale and needs a robust downstream chain for application of extracted materials.

Many OEMs are taking ownership for recycling of end of life batteries (e.g. MG Motors partnered with Umicore), some plan to buy back used batteries and repurpose them for storage systems. BMW, Nissan, BYD, Renault and Rivian are contemplating 2nd life applications at the stage of battery design itself. China is leading the recycling race with Chinese government looking to ramp up recycling capacity to 1 million tons by 2030, according to BloombergNEF.

Above excerpt is from an article published on EVreporter.com. For a detailed analysis of trends in Lithium-ion battery reuse and recycling, visit https://evreporter.com/lithium-ion-battery-reuse-and-recycling/.