Recycling ionic battery recycling reduces emissions and secures future mineral supply.

According to the new Stanford University Lifecycle analysis published in Nature Communications, the environment has been significantly reduced in recycling lithium -ion batteries and collecting important metals and mining virgin metals. Large -scale, recycling can also help alleviate long -term supply (physically and geopolitical) of important battery minerals.

The lithium -ion battery cycle supplies two mainstream materials. A defective scrap material from the battery manufacturer and a so -called “dead” battery collected mainly from the workplace. The recycling process extracts lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and aluminum from these sources.

In this study, the environmental footprint of this recycling process is quantified, and it is less than half the greenhouse gas (GHG) of the conventional mining and improvement of these metals, and the water and energy of about a quarter of the new metal. I understand that I am using it. The advantage of the environment is that the scrap stream, which accounted for about 90 % of the researched recycled supply, is even larger, contains 19 % of the mining and processing GHG emissions, 12 % of water use, and 11 % of energy. 。 use. Although it is not specificly measured, the decrease in energy consumption is correlated that there are few air pollutants like sulfur and sulfur.

“This study indicates that the future of the battery cycle can be designed to optimize the benefits of the environment. You can write a script,” said WILLIAM TARPEH (BS ’12), an assistant professor of chemical engineering in engineering. The senior of the research said. author.

Places and places

The impact of the battery cycle on the environment depends greatly on the location of the processing facility and the power source.

“The battery cycle factory in areas, which greatly depends on the power generated by the burning of coal, will have a decrease in the climate’s advantage,” said Dr. Samantha Banke. One of the three lead investigators of Stanford University students and research.

“On the other hand, the lack of freshwater in areas where power is beautiful is a great interest,” Bunke added.

Most of the research data on the battery cycle was from Redwood material in Nevada, the largest industrial lithium -ion battery cycle facility in Nebada. It benefits from the cleaning mix in the western United States, including hydropower, geothermal, and sun.

Transportation is also an important factor. For example, for the mining and processing of cobalt, 80 % of the global supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Later, 75 % of the battery’s cobalt supply moves to roads, railways, and the sea for sophistication. Most of the global supplies of lithium are mined in Australia and Chile. Most of the supplies are on the path to China. The equivalent process of the battery cycle is to collect used batteries and scraps, and need to be transported to recycled companies.

“We have determined that the total transport distance between the battery active metal only is about 35,000 miles (57,000 kilometers) on average, which is like turning the world 1.5 times.” ’17, I am also the master of this research.

“The estimated total transportation of used batteries for virtual refined facilities in California to California was about 140 miles (225 kilometers),” said Makala at the Posdok Research Institute at the time of Stanford’s energy. Study and currently a staff scientist of Toyota Risato Institute. This distance was based on an estimated optimal location for future refined facilities in a sufficient US recycled battery.

Patent advantage

RedWood’s environmental transfers does not represent the environmental performance of the new battery cycle industry for recycling used battery. Conventional thermal plants, which are important purification steps, are very energy -intensive, and usually requires a temperature of 2,550 degrees (1,400 degrees in Campais).

However, Redwood has obtained a process called “reduction -fired” process that requires a fairly low temperature, and does not use fossil fuels and generates more lithium than conventional methods.

“The same as Redwood, the process of other tropical disease operates at a medium temperature and appears in a lab that does not burn fossil fuels,” said XI CHEN, the third main attacker, Xi Chen. In the era, Stanford’s postdoc scholar and now assistant professor Xi Chen said. At Hong Kong City University.

“Every time we talk about the research, the company will ask us questions and incorporate what we find into more efficient practices,” Chien added. “In this survey, you can notify you of the scale of the battery cycle company, including the importance of choosing a place suitable for new facilities. California does not monopolize the aging lithium -ion battery from mobile phones and EVs. “

I’m looking ahead

According to a senior author’s turpe, the industrial -scale battery cycle is growing, but not fast enough.

“We predict that we will run out of new cobalt, nickel, and lithium in the next 10 years. Probably, we only mined minerals of lower grades for a while, but the goal of 2050 is far away. “He said.

The United States is currently recycling about 50 % of available lithium -ion batteries, but has been recycling 99 % of leads of lead acid cells for decades. Given that used lithium -ion batteries contain materials with a maximum of 10 times higher economic values, Taeper said that the opportunity is important.

“In the future when spent battery supply has increased significantly, we need to design and prepare a recycling system today, from collection to new battery processing, minimizing the impact on the environment.” Is added. “Hopefully, the battery maker will take into account recycling in future designs.”