EV battery cathode recycled with less energy and hazardous chemicals

Their method uses organic acid such as ascorbic acid as a leaching agent and has been tested on cathode material from a first-generation Nissan Leaf battery cell. 

The results of this testing, published today (October 20, 2023) in ChemRxiV, demonstrated that ascorbic acid selectively leaches low-value electrode material (lithium manganese oxide), and leaves the higher-value nickel and cobalt-based material in a solid state.

Currently, battery recycling concentrates on recovering elements by dissolving battery cathodes using strong acids, which present disposal challenges. It relies also on the initial shredding of the batteries, which combines components and creates a mixture of chemistries that can only be separated by chemical processes.  

The new leaching method was developed by Professor Peter Slater, Professor Paul Anderson, and Dr Laura Driscoll from Birmingham’s School of Chemistry and has been patented by Birmingham University Enterprise. Their research is part of the ReLiB (Recycling and Reuse of EV Lithium-ion Batteries) project, a multi-institution consortium of researchers funded by the Faraday Institution and led by Birmingham University.