We can't just keep increasing battery production without thinking about what happens to them when they run out

These days, the battery recycling is an increasingly important link in the industrial chain. It allows us to reduce the waste of natural resources or the amount of CO2 released during extraction and production. Is it also economically advantageous? And what types of industrial processes can we use for recycling? How is the Czech Republic doing in building recycling capacity? On the occasion of the European Battery Recycling Day, which is celebrated on 9 September, the day on which the Italian doctor and physicist Luigi Galvani was born, we asked Tomáš Kazda from the FEEC (Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication) at Brno University of Technology about questions related to the current topic.

Why is it important to recycle batteries?

Above all, it allows to increase the efficiency of the use of natural resources. It means that we don't need as many direct resources from mining and it also helps to reduce our carbon footprint. And it will become increasingly important, because we cannot just increase battery production without thinking about what happens to them when they run out. The new EU legislation then clearly defines what percentage of the battery weight must be recycled or what minimum amount of recycled material must be used to produce new batteries.

Is awareness of battery recycling important? Does it make sense to motivate the public to collect AA or AAA batteries when the main volume of them will be in electric cars or even airplanes?

It certainly makes sense. Batteries from electric vehicles will only become a bigger part of recycling in the coming years. Now, the largest share of this is taken by batteries from classic products such as mobile phones, computers, power tools, electric bikes and the aforementioned AA and AAA batteries. It is also likely that the car industry itself will take care of the efficient collection of batteries from electric vehicles, which will have a take-back obligation. However, batteries from other devices will continue to be a significant part of the waste stream in the future and the efficiency of their collection and subsequent recycling will depend on the ordinary users.

Is the cost of producing batteries from recycled materials comparable to producing batteries from natural sources?

That's a difficult question. This is the case for products that are produced and marketed in steady quantities, as is the case for lead-acid batteries, the production of which is largely covered by recycled materials. However, this is not the case when we invest tens or rather hundreds of millions of crowns in the development and construction of a recycling line, for example for Li-ion batteries, and then 30 waste batteries per year from electric cars that were sold in the Czech Republic 12 years ago pass through it. In this case, the price of the obtained material will be too high. Only when the market stabilises and there is a large number of batteries suitable for recycling, the costs will be spread and the price will be acceptable.

How does battery recycling actually work?

After mechanical disassembly of the battery, the individual fuel cells are crushed. From the resulting grit, pieces of iron, aluminium and copper scrap are gradually separated, leaving a black powder. It contains compounds of cobalt, manganese, lithium and carbon. Next, this powder is processed either thermally, which is called pyrometallurgy, or chemically, which means hydrometallurgy. Pyrometallurgy is an older type of recycling that is now used on all lead-acid batteries from conventional cars. However, this process is not efficient enough for Li-ion batteries. Only about 50 percent of the total mass of the article is obtained. More recent is hydrometallurgical processing, where carbonates, hydroxides or sulphides of individual metals – lithium, manganese, nickel, cobalt – are obtained by leaching. After purification, these are equivalent to what is extracted from mining and can be freely added to the material in the production of new batteries.

Does recycling vary by battery type?

Yes, recycling varies for different types of batteries. Each battery type has a different composition and must be optimised for that composition if recycling is to achieve high efficiency.

Some batteries that were originally intended for recycling are getting a second chance at life after testing. Under what conditions is this possible?

This application is called “battery second life” in English. In the context of using batteries in an electric car, say after 10 years, the capacity will drop to, for example, 70% of the original value, which is not enough for a mobile application, but for applications such as stationary energy storage, where the weight of the battery does not play such a role, this is not a problem. The “second life” will thus make the battery's life cycle more efficient.

Are there any recycling lines already in operation in the Czech Republic?

Yes, there have been such lines on classic batteries for decades. In the case of Li-ion batteries, one is in trial operation and others are in the preparation phase.

Should we focus more on battery recycling in the Czech Republic?

No doubt about it. Because of the increasing carbon footprint, it does not make sense to transport waste Li-ion batteries from the automotive industry over longer distances. It is much more efficient to recycle them somewhere nearby and then recover them.

Does recycling have a place in the FEEC curriculum? Is there interest in this issue and its research among students?

Personally, I see a lot of interest among students. Within our research group, several diploma theses have already been written on the topic and one of my doctoral students is doing research in this area. I myself mention battery recycling only marginally in my teaching. However, we are preparing new programmes at FEEC that will be related to electromobility, such as the study programme Automotive Electronics and Electromobility and recycling will be a big part of it. We are also currently working quite a lot with industrial partners who are trying to develop the technology on an industrial scale.

(kub)

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