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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric who wrote (1424967)	11/12/2023 8:47:21 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578068

EV battery recycling challenges edmunds.com There aren't that many lithium-ion battery recycling companies today because creating one requires a lot of capital. The cost of building a factory is high if specialized equipment is needed, and as in the case of pyrometallurgy, it's also energy-intensive. On top of that, many of the raw materials are lost using certain recycling methods like pyrometallurgy, which lowers profitability. What also hurts profitability is the constantly fluctuating prices of raw materials. For example, according to Reuters, the price of cobalt (one of the metals extracted from lithium-ion battery recycling) dropped significantly — from $40 per pound last May to just under $16 at the time of this publication. If the price drops low enough, it would be difficult for recyclers to make a profit from it. In addition, the minerals used in EV batteries will change over time. Manufacturers, for example, are trying to use fewer rare earth metals such as cobalt. If a current EV battery is recycled 10 years from now, its cobalt might not be worth much if future EV batteries require less to produce. The fact that EV batteries aren't designed with recycling in mind is another challenge for recycling companies. EV battery packs are hard to disassemble because they are complex and don't have standardized designs. Some battery packs contain thousands of individual cells held together by glue, and according to Chemical and Engineering News, they also include components that recyclers don't need such as sensors, safety devices and circuitry, which all add more difficulty to the recycling process and cost. Making things more complicated are the various battery chemistries recyclers have to deal with. As stated by Science.org, the three main types of EV batteries are nickel-cobalt-aluminum, iron-phosphate and nickel-manganese-cobalt. Battery recyclers don't always know what kind of batteries they receive because manufacturers aren't required to label them. This makes it challenging to create an efficient recycling system and adds to the cost of recycling, which can make newly mined materials cheaper for battery makers to buy. Transporting the battery packs to recyclers is another challenge. According to Mark Gillies, director of Public Relations and Reputation for Volkswagen Group of America, "All batteries and modules for recycling are considered universal waste and must be shipped as Class 9 hazardous materials, which is very expensive and constitutes the bulk of the cost of recycling." Once the volume of spent battery packs increases, battery makers need to figure out an efficient and cost-effective way to transport them in order to make recycling more viable. A more obvious challenge is the dangers associated with lithium-ion battery recycling. The battery packs are high-voltage and can also catch fire and explode if not handled correctly. If they explode, the battery cells release toxic chemicals into the air. To add to factory employee safety concerns, pyrometallurgy factories use large furnaces heated to extreme temperatures, and hydrometallurgy requires various harmful acids. Edmunds says Lithium-ion battery recycling is still in its infancy and needs time to grow into an efficient, profitable and sustainable industry. Currently, the demand for EV battery recycling is low, but the rapid rise of EV production will necessitate the growth and evolution of the industry. According to Ars Technica, Redwood Materials is already profiting from lithium-ion batteries found in small electronics and believes recycling EV battery packs will become profitable once more of them become available. There are many challenges that EV battery recycling will face over the next several years, but advancement will happen, not only for the sake of the environment and supply chain but also because the EV battery recycling industry will become lucrative. Meticulous Research projects the industry will be worth $15.8 billion by 2030. "While we cannot yet get commercial quantities of cathode grade materials from recycling, the industry is already producing copper foil in commercial grade and quality," says Gillies. "We anticipate that recycled cathode grade materials will be available to battery producers within the next year," he added. That's an essential step in the right direction.