A new Stanford University study reveals that recycling lithium-ion batteries drastically reduces environmental impact compared to traditional mining.
An eye-opening study from Stanford University has unveiled the significant environmental benefits of recycling lithium-ion batteries, presenting a sustainable alternative to the traditional mining of vital battery metals.
Published in Nature Communications, the lifecycle analysis demonstrates the overarching environmental advantages, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions and lowering water and energy usage.
Significant Findings
Conducted by a team of researchers, the study assessed the environmental footprint of recycling materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese and aluminum.
According to the findings, recycling emits less than half the greenhouse gases (GHGs) compared to conventional mining and refinement processes. Additionally, recycling utilizes about one-fourth of the water and energy required for mining new metals.
The study further highlights that the environmental benefits are even more pronounced in the recycling of defective scrap material from battery manufacturers, which constituted about 90% of the recycled supply. This process only contributes 19% of GHG emissions, 12% of water use, and 11% of energy use compared to mining and processing.
“This study, I think, tells us that we can design the future of battery recycling to optimize the environmental benefits. We can write the script,” senior author William Tarpeh, an assistant professor of chemical engineering in the School of Engineering at Stanford, said in a news release.
Geopolitical and Physical Implications
Recycling lithium-ion batteries could play a pivotal role in addressing the long-term supply insecurities of critical battery minerals, both physically and geopolitically.
The recycling process involves sourcing materials from two primary streams: defective scrap material from battery manufacturers and “dead” batteries collected from various workplaces.
Impact of Processing Locations
The environmental impact of battery recycling is significantly influenced by the location of the processing facility and its electricity source.
“A battery recycling plant in regions that rely heavily on electricity generated by burning coal would see a diminished climate advantage,” added co-lead investigator Samantha Bunke, a doctoral student at Stanford.
Conversely, regions suffering from fresh-water shortages but relying on cleaner sources of electricity might also face challenges.
Most of the study’s data was derived from Redwood Materials in Nevada, the largest industrial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility in North America, which benefits from the Western United States’ cleaner energy mix, including hydropower, geothermal and solar.
Transportation distances are another critical factor, as transporting conventional mined metals can average about 35,000 miles globally, whereas the recycling process transports considerably shorter distances, averaging around 140 miles.
Technological Innovations
The study also sheds light on technological advancements in battery recycling.
Redwood Materials has developed a patented process called “reductive calcination,” which operates at considerably lower temperatures without using fossil fuels, making it environmentally superior to conventional methods.
“Other pyrometallurgical processes similar to Redwood’s are emerging in labs that also operate at moderate temperatures and don’t burn fossil fuels,” added third lead author Xi Chen, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford at the time of the research and now an assistant professor at City University of Hong Kong.
Challenges and Future Prospects
Despite the promising findings, the pace of industrial-scale battery recycling must accelerate to meet future demands.
The United States currently recycles about 50% of available lithium-ion batteries, a figure that needs significant improvement.
“We’re forecast to run out of new cobalt, nickel and lithium in the next decade. We’ll probably just mine lower-grade minerals for a while, but 2050 and the goals we have for that year are not far away,” added Tarpeh.
To build a sustainable future, a comprehensive recycling system must be designed and established now, ensuring minimal environmental impact and resource efficiency.
“For a future with a greatly increased supply of used batteries, we need to design and prepare a recycling system today from collection to processing back into new batteries with minimal environmental impact,” Tarpeh added. “Hopefully, battery manufacturers will consider recyclability more in their future designs, too.”