Recycling turns the life of batteries into an eternal return

Battery recycling in the lithium value chain is gaining relevance, following the principle of a circular economy that is more sustainable and generates new business opportunities.

CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's government agency for scientific research, reports that the global market for lithium batteries reached almost 250 GWh in 2020 and is expected to increase tenfold by 2030. The electronics industry, but above all electric vehicles and large-scale stationary electrical energy storage are the main drivers of this market.

In line with this growing trend, the research unit of the American Chemical Society (CAS) estimates that the global volume of waste batteries could reach around 8 million tonnes by 2040.

So, by trying to get rid of petrol, are we creating an environmental problem that is just as serious, if not more so? What the data, science and industry show us is that we are not.

And a lot of this is thanks to an asset of batteries (lithium ones, in this case) that oil derivatives don't have: their circularity.

A simple example: petrol and Diesel, which power heat engines, ‘disappear’ irretrievably (sometimes very quickly!) from car tanks, leaving behind a trail of different types of pollution.

On the other hand, lithium-ion batteries are a source of many valuable materials. Even when their life cycle comes to an end, their constituents can be reused. CSIRO points out that if batteries are recycled, potentially 95 per cent of their components can be recovered for alternative use or can even be transformed into new batteries.

As well as creating new business opportunities and giving rise to companies dedicated to recycling and reusing batteries, this promotes circularity and reduces the environmental impact of battery manufacturing.

CAS argues that of an estimated 500 kton of batteries that could be recycled from global production in 2019, 15 kton of aluminium, 35 kton of phosphorus, 45 kton of copper, 60 kton of cobalt, 75 kton of lithium and 90 kton of iron could be recovered.

And all this with current technology alone.

Recycling can therefore reduce the need to extract new materials and promote shorter low-carbon logistics chains, as a result of reducing the transport of raw materials.

Globally, the current lithium battery recycling market is estimated to be worth around 1700 million dollars and is expected to increase significantly over the next ten years.

Also according to CAS, in the study ‘Lithium ion battery recycling: a review of the current methods and global developments’, assessments of the environmental benefits of recycling lithium batteries - such as the reduction of GHG emissions - are variable, differing according to the recycling methods used, the composition of the battery and the type of energy used in the process.

For example, using older technology with little processing capacity for recycling can consume ten times more energy than full-capacity facilities using newer technology. However, even in this scenario, the reductions in emissions and energy consumption can be significant: recycling the cathode material and current collectors can reduce energy consumption by more than 50% while recycling LCO (Lithium Cobalt Oxide) can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 75% compared to a new battery manufacturing process.

Although the battery recycling market will still be relatively small in 2030, McKinsey predicts that it will grow more than threefold in the following decade as more batteries reach the end of their useful life.

According to the consultancy's projections, the global volume of resources available for recycling in 2040, resulting from both battery production scrap and end-of-life batteries themselves, will already represent 7,300 kton, 83% of which will come from end-of-life batteries.

In other words, unlike oil, which is used up and has to be extracted and refined again from scratch (linear economy), the lithium materials resulting from battery recycling are reusable, contributing to the circularity of various types of industry, whether battery manufacturers, car and smartphone brands or other products - the full realisation of sustainability objectives in a value chain that serves the goal of decarbonisation.