UK study urges action on battery waste

While the growth in electric vehicles is helping to cut pollution at point of use, recycling technologies for the large batteries that power them is not keeping pace. According to the study, published in Nature, action must be taken now to avoid a potentially massive waste management problem in the near future. The work was led by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Newcastle and Leicester universities.

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"The recycling challenge is not straightforward: there is enormous variety in the chemistries, shapes and designs of lithium ion batteries used in EVs,” said lead author Dr Gavin Harper, Faraday Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.

“Individual cells are formed into modules, which are then assembled into battery packs. To recycle these efficiently, they must be disassembled and the resulting waste streams separated. As well as lithium, these batteries contain a number of other valuable metals, such as cobalt, nickel and manganese, and there is the potential to improve the processes which are currently used to recover these for reuse."