Actualités Engineering, Manufacturing

Lithium-ion batteries and its recycling issues

25 October 2021

How to recycle batteries with cost-effective process?

INCREASE OF BATTERY PRODUCTION

 

“Battery is a key technology for new concepts of mobility and energy supported by the following trends :

  • Population increases and city growth challenging existing mobility and energy solutions
  • Shift in energy production with an increasing focus on renewable energies as an alternative to fossil fuel and nuclear
  • Global awareness regarding global warming pushing for adoption of green solutions (CO2 emissions reductions, government regulations and incentives, social pressure for environmental-friendly solutions)” Avicenne Energy report 2021.

 

Within the battery market, Lithium-ion batteries represent the highest growth and the major part of investments. The number of electric vehicles (EV) sold worldwide will probably reach 15 million units in 2030.

Since the global production capacity is increasing, Europe is not left out. The production capacity of European Gigafactories will reach 500 GWh in 2028.

 

batteries

recycling issues

 

The main issue of this development will be materials recycling. In Europe, the extended producer responsibility for batteries and accumulators requires a constantly increasing collection rate over the years. The incorporation rates of recycled materials in new products will be increasingly important as well, to deal with the shortage of rare metals.

 

Until today, the only option was smelting and pyrometallurgical process. In 2030, metal from recycling could account for 15 to 25% of the metal needs to produce Li-ion batteries. Experts estimated the production scrap rate to be approximately 10% for gigafactories. How to recycle batteries with cost-effective process?

 

Regarding the waste stream and considering the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries, we determine that the first source of waste will be from manufacturers. Scrap from the entire production process may represent 10-30% of material inputs.

THE DRY CELL BOX DESIGNED BY MTB’S EXPERTS

 

MTB’s innovation team has been pushing hard to implement efficient battery recycling solutions. The operational equipment Drycell Box solves the problem of these first sources of waste. Its objective is to recover as much material from the anode, cathode and dry cells as possible. The recycling process is contained in a few containers for an easier and modular installation. MTB engineers optimized technical adjustments to provide a simple and cost-effective on-site solution.

 

Thanks to the Drycell Box, our customers recover clean outputs metal (aluminum and copper), plastics, casings, and blackmass. Further developments are underway for complete batteries or accumulators from electronic devices.

 

 

OUTPUT PRODUCTS

casings

CASINGS

ALU BATTERY

ALUMINIUM

COPPER BATTERY

copper

Black mass

blackmass

You are looking for high-quality products and cost-effective solution? Contact our expertS to discover our solutions.