Recycling End-of-Life Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) play a significant role in our highly electrified world and will continue to lead technology innovations. Millions of vehicles are equipped with or directly powered by LIBs, mitigating environmental pollution and reducing energy use. This rapidly increasing use of LIBs in vehicles will introduce a large quantity of spent LIBs within an 8–10-year span. Proper handling of end-of-life (EOL) vehicle LIBs is required, and multiple options should be considered. This paper demonstrates that the necessity for EOL recycling is underpinned by leveraging fluctuating material costs, uneven distribution and production, and the transport situation. From a life-cycle perspective, remanufacturing and repurposing extend the life of LIBs, and industrial demonstrations indicate that this is feasible. Recycling is the ultimate option for handling EOL LIBs, and recent advancements both in research and industry regarding pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical, and direct recycling are summarized. Currently, none of the current battery recycling technologies is ideal, and challenges must be overcome. This article is anticipated as a starting point for a more sophisticated study of recycling, and it suggests potential improvements in the process through mutual efforts from academia, industry, and governments. The rapid increase in the use of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles will introduce a large quantity of spent lithium-ion batteries in the near future, and the options to properly handle the spent lithium-ion batteries include remanufacturing, repurposing, and recycling. Remanufacturing and repurposing are extending the life of batteries, and recycling closes the loop by returning materials back to the value chain. Pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and direct recycling are the three recycling processes for spent lithium-ion batteries. Academic innovations and industrial demonstrations of these three recycling processes are constantly emerging and attempting to make an impact. However, none of the current recycling technologies is perfect, and challenges do exist. By providing insights and suggestions in this perspective paper, the direction for improvement of lithium-ion battery recycling becomes clear. With the mutual efforts from academia, industry, and governments, recycling will play a significant role from both ecologic and economic points of view. The wide adoption of electric vehicles leads to large amounts of spent lithium-ion batteries in the near future. The needs and options to handle these spent batteries are discussed in the paper. Recycling is one of the possible options by extracting valuable materials and reducing pollutants. Along with discussion of the recent academic innovations and industrial demonstrations of recycling activities, the potential challenges and solutions of different recycling processes are also presented.