Much of the world is preparing to make a big switch from gasoline- and diesel-fueled cars to fully electric vehicles. Some countries will ban the sale of new gasoline cars from 2030, and hybrids from 2035. Others are being a little more cautious, waiting for 2040 to make those bans a reality. Why is it all happening? Chiefly, it’s to do with making the automotive industry cleaner and greener.
But, will the switch to electric cars really achieve that? Some are doubtful that the mere existence of more electric cars will really have the green impact that people claim. Why? The batteries. EV batteries require rare and precious metals like lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper. These have to be mined, and are mostly garnered from mining operations in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia, where workers’ rights and working conditions are hardly stellar.
There is one critical new industry that is rising that is proving itself absolutely essential in both the sustainability of the growing EV sector, and the viability of electric cars as a genuinely green and eco-friendly mode of transportation. We’re speaking, of course, about battery recycling.
What is EV Battery Recycling?
As a general concept, the idea of recycling batteries is not alien to us. Many of us will be familiar with the notion of disposing of our traditional AA, AAA and other household batteries in a way that will allow them to be safely recycled. These simple, small-scale batteries are one thing, but an complex interconnected EV lithium-ion battery pack is another thing altogether.
The main goal of recycling an EV battery is to recover the precious metals mentioned above and any other valuable components so as to reduce the need for more mining in the future. With current mining operations already proving very damaging to the natural environment, not to mention dangerous for workers involved, it seems both logical and morally right that we find all ways possible to reduce our dependence on new raw material mining. That’s what recycling aims to do.
Battery recycling on this scale is a relatively new industry. The fact is that the “oldest” mass-produced fully electric cars have only been on the roads for about 10 years. The oldest hybrid cars with lithium-ion batteries are only about 20 years old, and their packs much smaller. Now, we are seeing the first wave of batteries start to enter the world of recycling from earliest cars like the Model S and Nissan Leaf. Experts predict, however, that within the next decade we will see a battery surge as the number of EVs on the roads is expected to skyrocket from just 10 million in 2020 to 145 million or more by 2030. The International Energy Agency has even more ambitious estimates of 245 million units by 2030.
In the time we have, it’s essential that we crack the EV battery recycling problem. The technology for recycling is already there, but the question is how to scale it up and make it manage the incoming tens of millions of batteries set to flood the market?
Why is EV Battery Recycling Important?
As we touched on above, the first reason battery recycling is so important is because of the environmental impact continuous mining of materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper will have on the Earth’s natural environment. While some argue such industries could enrich poor countries where these materials are abundant, the environmental cost to them and the wider world could be catastrophic.
Some mining will always be essential, and hopefully these emerging industries will benefit developing countries, providing wealth that develops their economy and enriches their people. Reducing reliance on mining, however, is crucial to the sustainability of the industry, and that’s where battery recycling comes in.
Another reason battery recycling is important is to strengthen the supply chain of the key materials that make EV batteries work as we currently understand them. In the past, production of EVs has been badly impacted by sudden shortages of nickel and cobalt, for example, which is commercially disastrous for any company. The main issue with the precious metals in batteries is that their sources are so few, so simply switching to a new supplier is impossible. Recycling offers a sustained domestic supply of critical materials to support new materials being mined around the world.
Thirdly, battery recycling is important because we are currently working against a clock. One end of the supply chain is already pumping out products in the form of millions of units of electric vehicles. The other end of the supply chain that deals with their old batteries is barely off the ground. Developing this industry at speed and scale is of paramount importance lest we end up with tens of millions of wasted battery packs.
Who is Doing Battery Recycling Now?
Many OEMs like Tesla and BMW have talked about their plans for battery recycling facilities. In the meantime, however, there are smaller companies who are acting as pioneers of a new and essential industry. Below are a few examples:
- Li-Cycle: This company is based in Canada and uses leaching as its primary process to recover more than 95 percent of all raw materials found in the batteries.
- Redwood Materials: This is a US company based in Nevada. They use pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy, using burning and leaching respectively to recover cobalt, copper and nickel.
- Aceleron: This UK company produces batteries which it claims are the most sustainable in the world because they take recycling and reuse into account. Their batteries are easy to disassemble, and also easy to repurpose as EV charging point storage units, for instance.
Does the Future Look Good for EV Battery Recycling?
EV battery recycling as an industry is an interesting concept. Though it is clearly in its most fledgling and underdeveloped status right now, we already know with a strong degree of certainty that it will flourish in the coming years. Given the inevitability of electric cars as a major market sector thanks to government policies around the world, recycling also becomes an inevitability.
The factors of a growing market sector and great difficulty in mining fresh raw materials for batteries work together as a potent force to make battery recycling an exciting industry. The main pitfalls that lie ahead are in whether or not we will build the technology and infrastructure to achieve the scale of recycling that we will need to cope with tens of millions of dead batteries in the next decade, and hundreds of millions more in the decades that follow.
In any event, what we are seeing with EV batteries is certainly the birth of an all-new job-creating sector of the wider automotive industry. It should ultimately benefit many people all over the world.
