ReLiB: Recycling and Reuse of EV Lithium-ion Batteries

The transition to EVs brings challenges and opportunities associated with the need to manage the projected 28,000 tonnes of EV lithium-ion batteries that will require recycling by 2030. To cope effectively with these volumes, vast improvements in the speed, environmental footprint and the market economics of recycling processes will be required, not least as the security of supply of critical materials is becoming an ever-increasing priority for Government. To this end ReLiB is developing recycling technologies that will put the UK at the cutting edge of R&D whilst also building the industrial capacity to underpin the transition to EVs.

ReLiB’s vision is to provide a UK EV battery recycling industry with a pipeline of scalable technologies that are responsive to regulatory drivers, new battery designs and chemistries, and the opportunities afforded by Industry 4.0.

The project aims to develop – and scale – the following technologies:

• Cathode leaching to industrial level.
• Upcycled electrode materials used in new cells.
• Binder recovery (where there is an economic or regulatory rationale to do so).
• Biorecovery of materials, e.g., metals from plastic EV battery waste, from secondary waste solutions – ‘zero waste’ concept.
• Data informed recycling routes based on digital diagnostic tools that can interface seamlessly with battery data passports to assess the batteries key recycling indicators.
• High power anode recovery and reuse.
• Graphite recovery and reuse.

ReLiB also aims to identify new research topics that fit with changing battery design and chemistry systems and regulatory drivers.

Timeline with milestone/deliverables (to March 2026)

• Demonstration of effective leaching from end-of-life EV batteries.
• Investigation of cell-dismantling routes as an alternative to shred and sort methods for materials recovery.
• Develop routes for short-loop direct recycling and upcycling of common cathode materials.
• Evaluation of optimum methodology for recovery and reconditioning of current and future anode materials.
• Scale up of selective metal bioleaching processes using natural and bioengineered bacterial strains.
• Production of remanufactured cells from recycled materials and conduct long-term cycling/ failure investigations.

Project innovations

Unlocking safe, cost-effective and environmentally benign routes for the separation, recovery, remanufacture and recycling of materials within EV batteries is critical to the success of the EV transition and sustainable manufacturing supply chains. The project will directly target rapid and efficient dismantling processes to boost productivity and safety in the waste and recycling sector. This will provide high-purity and high-value recovered material streams, maximising environmental gains from the shift to EVs.

Duration
1 March 2018 – 31 March 2026

Project funding
£21.1 million

Principal Investigator
Professor Paul Anderson
University of Birmingham

Project Leader
Dr Laura Driscoll
University of Birmingham

Project Manager
Paul Cornick
University of Birmingham

University Partners
University of Birmingham (Lead)
Imperial College London
Newcastle University
University of Edinburgh
University of Leicester
University of Oxford

+20 Industrial Partners

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