ReLiB: Recycling and reuse of EV lithium-ion batteries

Objectives

ReLiB aims to devise and develop alternative recycling routes that could provide UK businesses with a competitive advantage. The project is using a range of physical, chemical and biological techniques to separate and recover the materials contained in the full range of battery compositions currently in use.

Success will be demonstrated by the construction (through a collaboration between the partner universities, local authorities and industrial partners) and patenting of demonstrator plants that can:

• Strip down the whole battery more safely and much faster than present techniques allow.
• Reduce environmental impact by minimising the use of chemicals.
• Minimise human intervention by using advanced robotics to automate most processes.
• Recover a high proportion of the original materials in a reusable form.
• Maintain high value materials streams to improve the economics of recycling.