ReLiB: Recycling and Reuse of EV Lithium-ion Batteries

The transition to EVs brings challenges and opportunities associated with the need to manage the large growth in EV lithium-ion batteries that require recycling. To cope effectively with this growth, 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, the ReLiB project is developing recycling technologies that will put the UK at the cutting edge of research and development, and support the birth of an end-to-end, UK lithium-ion battery recycling capability, raising material recovery rates from the current <50% to >90%. The project will achieve this by targeting fast, efficient dismantling and separation processes, along with low cost/low waste regeneration processes to boost productivity and safety within the waste and recycling sector.

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

• routes for the efficient recycling of slurries, electrodes and cells rejected by quality control processes during battery manufacturing;
• economically and environmentally advantageous short-loop and direct recycling routes for end-of-life (EoL) cells;
• upcycling approaches for older generation and low value chemistries from EoL cells to deliver high performing current- or next-generation materials;
• biorecovery of critical metals from secondary recycling waste;
• data-informed recycling routes based on digital diagnostic tools that can interface seamlessly with battery data passports to assess the battery’s key recycling indicators;
• recycling solutions for sodium-ion batteries;
• assessment of the challenges and opportunities associated with recycling next-generation technologies such as lithium–sulfur and all-solid-state batteries.

ReLiB will also work with international governments and NGOs to advise on EoL decommissioning and promote a global EV transition.

Timeline with milestone/deliverables:

• deliver a field-deployable, integrated fast discharge and testing method for second life viability assessment at module level (March 2030);
• demonstrate the separation of 10 kg batches of commercial black mass into purified and regenerated cathode active material with the potential profitability of LMP recycling of >£2,000/t (April 2027);
• enhance production scrap recovery and reuse to >90% (March 2030);
• enhance overall materials recovery rates from EoL cells towards 80% (March 2030);
• demonstrate high-performing cells utilising recycling content matching relevant regulations by 2028; and exceeding EU requirements by (March 2030);
• demonstrate a fluorine-free battery (March 2030);
• demonstrate a process for recovery and recycling of PVDF binder and PTFE from dry-processed electrodes and electrolyte (lab scale April 2027 and pilot scale March 2030).

Project innovations

ReLiB is working with industry partners to maximise the value of the cathode and anode black mass fractions, improving profitability and thus materials recovery rates by refining and developing cell-breaking, physical separation and chemical recovery processes, with a focus on increasing throughput, maintaining and improving materials value, and reducing processing waste. Low cost, low waste strategies to repair materials performance/upcycle to new electrode technologies to meet UK and EU regulations for reuse in new EV batteries will provide high-purity and high-value materials, maximising the gains and minimising the environmental impacts of the transition to EVs.

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)
Newcastle University
University of Edinburgh
University of Leicester
University of Oxford

+20 Industrial Partners

The Faraday Institution’s ReLiB project has been enabled thanks to funding from the Battery Innovation Programme, through the Department for Business and Trade and delivered by Innovate UK.

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