BEST asked battery industry experts what they considered to be the most significant problems in creating a closed-loop and circular economy for lithium-ion batteries. Here we throw their diverse replies into the melting pot.
If the lifeblood of the batteries industry isits minerals then the mining industry is the beating heart. As minerals are pumped from the earth into the batteries that power so much of modern life the recirculation of those minerals becomes more important. Anything that causes the fluidity of that movement to slow needs to be removed as a matter of urgency. Therefore a circular economy is an important consideration for ensuring the wellbeing of the supply system. However, achieving this will be more than a simple open-, or closed-loop case.
The idealist will say that we should have a closed loop circular economy— and this is a laudable goal. But is it economically viable? Certainly in the short term it would appear not to be the case. The economies of scale— to recover low value materials from waste batteries and sell those back to battery manufacturers at a profit— are hard to see.
The pragmatist may well view each constituent on its own merits and, in the short term, this is likely to be the quickest route to achieve a degree of circularity. Surely, the ‘ideal’ would be to achieve the level of recycling attained by the lead battery industry, where, in North America and Europe, the loop is almost completely closed.
When discussing lithium batteries’ closed-loop economy there are many factors that should be considered. To understand them, BEST asked industry leaders the question: What do you consider to be the most significant problems in creating a closed-loop and circular economy for lithium-ion batteries?
Your initial question, is a huge question, and it’s a societal question. It’s a fundamental question that every one of us should ask himself— do I contribute to a circular economy or not?
In conversation Claude Chanson, general manager of Recharge, said: “So you see, a circular economy, which was your initial question, is a huge question, and it’s a societal question. It’s a fundamental question that every one of us should ask himself— do I contribute to a circular economy or not?”
Regulation of waste
This question of a circular economy is one that has been at the heart of the European Commission’s Green Deal. As BEST reported in its Autumn 2020 issue, the Batteries Directive being developed by the European Commission is a “gigantic piece of legislation”. The Commission suggests, the planned 600GWh of manufacturing capacity proposed in the EU will be able to produce 4,200,000 tons of batteries. That’s a lot of batteries that will need somewhere to go at their end of life.
There are three main categories of waste identified in the Batteries Directive: portable, industrial and automotive. The waste from the industrial batteries will be dealt with under the extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation. Chanson said: “Today, the companies that put batteries on the market, Apple, Samsung, Volkswagen, Renault, Bosch, these are big companies that make consumer products, and they put the batteries on the market and they have the extended producer responsibility. So it’s already under control.
“Something else, which is not well understood in the circular economy picture, is that the circular economy of batteries cannot be implemented now. Because they are not coming back, the scales are not there yet.” In his view it is likely to be 2035 before the economies of scale exist and investment will turn from SMEs to large plant investment. He says, the real circular economy will start when we have competition for recycling.
This thinking is borne out by comments from Jean-Pol Wiaux, chairman of the International Battery Recycling Conference. He said: “In this respect, it may be the case that the quantity of lithium made available via collection and recycling schemes, and take back obligations, is not sufficient. It will vary with the return-rate of waste batteries. Indeed, it is frequently considered that electric car batteries may be only returned after 20 years on the market. The economic criteria will remain the dominant barrier to the overall achievement of a circular economy for the use of lithium active materials in a lithium-ion battery.”
Wiaux went on to say: “A key parameter will be the collection rate of waste batteries, or their availability, as a regular source of active materials. It will be necessary to control their internal processing within the EU borders in order to avoid leakage of waste batteries.”
Therefore, the key area for recycling, in the short term, will be portable batteries. And this requires a paradigm shift in society.
One company has got around the problem of waste collection by going directly to one source— manufacturing waste. Zarko Meseldzija, director and CTO at American Manganese, said: “Our recycling feedstock focus is cathode waste, whether it’s black mass from battery pre-treatment or battery production scrap. However, we see the battery production scrap as the low hanging fruit in the near term. EV batteries are a much larger and more concentrated source of battery materials compared to portable appliances. The smaller format batteries have less standardisation making it even more difficult to automate collection and sorting.
Steve Sloop, founder and CEO of Onto Technologies, said: “The new-scrap scenario shows the opportunity for efficiency in materials recovery. Such early-stage scrap is a prime opportunity for closed-loop recycling and manufacturing. Unfortunately, the battery materials cycle is focused on recovery of metal sulfates (or other salts), with energy intensity on par with original refining of new material. With such an infrastructure, the battery industry is, therefore, incapable of producing lower-cost material from recycling.”
OnTo has developed proprietary technologies to address this issue, reducing the cost of supplying recycled materials to help enable the circular economy. It would appear to solve one of the problems— the cost of Class-9 Miscellaneous Dangerous Goods shipping— and could lead to the safe stockpiling of waste, ready for a time when the economies of scale are ready to kick in in the EU.
Societal mindset
According to Chanson: “Waste should be considered as a resource, but we are still far from considering waste as a resource. If that were the case people would stop throwing away batteries in municipal waste, and that would be logical. The metals in used batteries are the same as when they are new and they have a lot of value.” Belgium has made a big effort to educate its consumers about treating waste as a resource with the result that around 80% of Belgian people consider that batteries need to be returned for recycling.
A change of consumer mindset would mean that regulation is not necessary. Chanson said: “Regulation is because of worries of harming the environment— so we need strong collection targets.”
Chanson is very opposed to a deposit return scheme (DRS), saying: “This is not the societal way to do it. This is an economical driver and we believe such a small economic incentive will not work.”
We very much support that society should move on and have a natural behaviour handling these resources, and this is just education.
A DRS works for plastic bottles because, unlike batteries, they are purchased and returned on a frequent basis. “Batteries last one, three, five or ten years. And when you consider it, what is the value in getting one Euro back on a battery you purchased ten years ago? There are many technical difficulties and we see no benefits. We very much support that society should move on and have a natural behaviour handling these resources, and this is just education.”
Level playing field
It is becoming clear that some form of regulatory compliance on the import of batteries will be required if the level playing field outlined in the Batteries Directive is to be achieved. Discussions with Chinese regulators regarding the air freight of batteries have proved less than fruitful when trying to ensure they meet European packaging standards.
If the EU is to develop its circular economy the European customs will need to do something about the import of unregulated batteries. It’s more than just a transport safety issue. Chanson said: “We should not import products that are not respecting our values into Europe. On the contrary, we should make it mandatory for the products to respect our fundamental values before they are imported, or we export our batteries. That is really the thinking and we have not been successful in the past on this.
“As a European association we very much support that the Commission is working to restore or increase so-called batteries eco-system.” The European Batteries Alliance would like the battery industry in Europe to be autonomous and provide for its own electric cars— it does not yet provide batteries for Europe’s cell-phones and laptops. Chanson believes the battery industry is not able to establish a circular economy in Europe because it is not operating on a level playing field with Asia.
Environmental indicators
The EU is building a new economy that should take into account carbon footprint as one of the environmental indicators. Recharge is very much involved in environmental assessment for batteries, which is a Commission initiative and one of the key impacts is a carbon footprint for manufacturing batteries— you need energy and then, of course, you have a carbon footprint.
This could be supported by a European initiative on labels— containing information about the carbon footprint— like you read on fridges where it has worked very well with consumers.
Chanson said that, the criteria— of the environmental impact and social responsibility of the companies— should be part of the purchasing incentive for the consumers. Today, the consumer looks first at the price, second the performance, and then sometimes, the environmental impact. He said, “We should reshape this and give much more weight to the environmental and social impact. This could be supported by a European initiative on labels— containing information about the carbon footprint— like you read on fridges where it has worked very well with consumers.”
Recharge believe that if consumers are informed directly about the carbon footprint of one battery compared to another, they would make the right decision. Chanson says communication is a powerful tool for developing due diligence and social responsibility. He asks the question: “Are you taking care of the social conditions of the workers that have been working on production? First of all, mining— everybody is aware of the cobalt mining. But we see it’s not only that, it should also be the manufacturing of batteries. Why would you accept to have workers that are paid nothing and not protected, working in Vietnam to produce your batteries? Why are you accepting that?”
Economic criteria
Sloop said: “Cost is the major issue for lithium-ion circularity and manufacturing. That cost has two subsets: safety and efficiency. For the classic ‘old-scrap’ scenario, recycling entails transportation and storage of class-9 miscellaneous batteries. The logistical costs of handling and storing such hazards adds up to more than half of the cost of recycling, that is before any materials are actually refined.” OnTo has developed and patented processes to render batteries inert, which will help to improve safety and cost for recycling.
The logistical costs of handling and storing such hazards adds up to more than half of the cost of recycling, that is before any materials are actually refined.
Meseldzija said: “I believe clearly defined and measurable legislation will play a significant role in creating a circular economy for lithium-ion batteries. For example, a minimum expected recycling rate and quality of lithium-ion battery metals. This would also be beneficial to the transparency of the supply chain.”
Wiaux said: “Similar to commercially available primary active materials, the lithium salt that will be recovered from waste batteries will have to comply with:
- Quality criteria
- Regular supply/delivery
- Price requirements of the global market
“The supply of active lithium will have to comply with requirements of international markets and traders, except if the OEM or the battery manufacturers have a captive control of the active materials of the battery.
“The interactive consequences of the three criteria are well known in the case of a linear economy, but less obvious in the case of the new requirements of the circular economy. Indeed the EU Commission’s proposal introduces the concepts of the recovery efficiency of lithium and the recycled content (percentage) that may be difficult to achieve.
“In the absence of harmony in the evolution of the criteria mentioned above, the economic criteria will remain the dominant barrier to the overall achievement of a circular economy for the use of lithium active materials in a lithium-ion battery.”
Alan Colledge, senior manager of UK recycling company Cawleys, said: “For lithium battery recycling in the UK we start in a weak position with no metallurgical treatment to go to. This means the actual work in breaking down the batteries, into materials to extract the metals within, has been wholly reliant on European and international routes where there are such treatment operations.”
Companies like Cawleys have therefore brought benefit to the market— reducing the high voltage risks— by disassembling battery packs into smaller components for safe export.
He said: “The key issue is the small volumes of waste batteries being generated has essentially stalled innovation and business development. Whilst we can see the growth in lithium waste is coming, the amounts we have actually had so far— together with the uncertainty as to when greater volumes of waste batteries will come— have made it difficult for companies like Cawleys to optimally time investment, be in a position to offer materials to the market and achieve a circular economy.”
Recycling methods
In the 1970s the ‘big game’ in municipal waste was to burn everything to recover energy. Today the concern is emissions. The number of batteries in municipal waste is almost nothing in countries like Belgium or France where they collect more than 50 or 60% of batteries. However, Colledge said, the UK experiences regular incidents with exploding batteries in municipal waste, causing damage to equipment.
The last EU General Waste Regulations Directive addressed the question of slags and waste-metals in slags from municipal waste. Chanson belives that if a battery goes in municipal waste it is not a catastrophe. It will just go through the combustion of municipal waste and the metals will be recovered.
Treatment wise, there are different approaches to recycling the batteries and, like a game of Top Trumps, there are strengths and weaknesses to them.
Colledge said: “Treatment wise, there are different approaches to recycling the batteries and, like a game of Top Trumps, there are strengths and weaknesses to them. Pyrometallurgy wastes a lot of the battery but is not fussy about the batteries’ state-of-charge and whether they ignite (in fact that is a necessary part of the process). Mechanical shredding nets the recovery of all of the materials but the batteries need to be frozen, electrically dead or processed in an oxygen-less atmosphere before this is successful. One is more suited to smaller portable batteries in large quantities; the other is better suited to EV large battery packs.”
Life blood
Chanson said Recharge has been looking into systems to change the mindset of people in order to protect society and to elevate bringing batteries back to a civic duty. He draws a comparison between attitudes towards giving blood. In those countries where blood donation is considered a civic duty there is a greater response than those countries where you are paid for your blood.
He said: “This means— and I feel a bit more why it’s related to batteries— it shows that to which you give value, like your blood, is a personal thing. So getting money for that is not moving a lot of people and we can understand that one. My message is really about people’s societal duty, that is important.”
Horses for courses
A circular economy for lithium-ion batteries is a societal question that starts with the disposal of waste batteries. It requires safe collection, transportation and storage of that waste. The waste must then be processed at a scale that meets environmental, economical and ethical criteria. A single system is unlikely to meet all the criteria for each of the streams of waste that is generated— automotive, industrial and portable.
As with so many situations in a modern society it’s about three things— education, education, education. To paraphrase Plutarch: the mind of society is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
