Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries
Collaborative project with National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics KBFI.
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have a lot of use cases (portable electronics, electric cars, stationary energy storage) but the predicted high increase of LIB use, combined with some of the main materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel) facing concerns with supply, has increased the need for recycling LIBs. LIBs normally consist of a graphite-based anode on a copper foil, a lithium metal oxide cathode (most popular lithium cobalt oxide, lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide, lithium nickel cobalt aluminium oxide) on an aluminium foil.
The main goal of the project is to develop an industrially applicable solution and methods for the safe disassembly of used lithium-ion batteries and the recycling of all materials used in them. At the moment, there are no technological solutions for the complete recycling of lithium-ion batteries in such a way that all components (metals, graphite, and polymers) can be recovered. As a result of the project, lithium-ion batteries would become secondary sources of raw materials, both for the metal, graphite, and plastic industries.
