Jo Dennis is Group Managing Director of Recyclus, a company that established the UK’s first capability in industrial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling. As the electric vehicle (EV) revolution motors on, he looks at progress in the UK and how far we have to go.
There are more than a million fully electric vehicles on Britain’s roads1 excluding hybrids. By 2028, sales could reach over 573,0002. This is, well… a lot of batteries.
The speed of the EV revolution took many by surprise. The elephant in the room was the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs. Weighing up to half a tonne, a baby elephant at least.
Lithium-ion batteries have an active life of around 10-20 years. Many already on the roads are reaching end-of-life.
In the UK alone, batteries for recycling are expected to reach 28,000 tonnes by 20303.
Building a circular economy for every stage – from safe handling, storage and collection, to extracting valuable components for recycling is a must.
It can reduce the need to source and mine scarce critical minerals for new EV batteries. It could cut the carbon footprint by up to 80 per cent4.
In addition, EU regulations force European manufacturers (and UK manufacturerss who want to export to Europe) to maximise where possible the percentages of recycled content in their batteries5.
In the UK, automotive industry producers must take back EV batteries6. Various similar obligations apply to producers of other industrial, automotive and portable batteries. For industry it is vital that infrastructure is in place to recycle at scale.
In the UK we are making progress. But expanding recycling capacity is ‘imperative’, as a committee of the Government Office for Science re-stated in November 20237.
keep calm & carry on recycling
Some manufacturers already recycle their EV batteries. Nissan Leaf, for example, uses old batteries in automated vehicles delivering parts to workers on Tyneside.
Increasingly government aims to promote collaborations between automakers, industry and science.
Recyclus established the UK’s first capability in industrial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling, and while there are other companies in the UK working on addressing these recycling challenges, Recyclus continues to operate as the UK’s only industrial-scale recycler of lithium-ion batteries, recovering black mass containing the valuable battery metals, and other recyclable waste fractions at our Wolverhampton plant.
circular economy
Achieving a circular economy for all stages of recycling EV batteries is Recyclus’ goal.
An obstacle to expanding capability was the wide variability of different battery types that require different approaches to recycling to recover the black mass. Another is funding.
Recyclus can safely deal with the five + types of lithium-ion battery chemistry – in July 2023 we opened our Wolverhampton plant, the first of five UK lithium-ion battery plants to be built. Here we can recover up to 47 per cent of the battery as black mass to be sent on for refining, and recycling back into new lithium-ion batteries.
Other issues need to be solved. Safely storing, collecting and transporting batteries is one. For example, auto retailers who have damaged EV batteries on their premises often lack the means to isolate and transport them.
Our answer is the LiBox which we designed and built. In partnership with Slicker Recycling and its network of transfer stations, our UN-certified and ADR compliant boxes provide a logistical solution to ensure lithium-ion batteries can be safely stored, collected and transported back to Recyclus from anywhere in the UK.
However, our story is still rare. Much work still needs to be done to successfully deal with a mountain of end-of-life batteries over the next few decades to prevent EV batteries from being dismantled and shipped to Europe8.
Research and development must focus on the range of issues – from designing batteries for easier discharge, dismantle and recycling, to building UK based modular refining technologies to recover battery metals from the black mass. The latter would prevent losing valuable materials to overseas processors.
A next generation of EV batteries is also coming on, and research on how to recycle them is needed in tandem with the developing technology.
funding innovation
This is not to play down progress in research.
The Faraday Battery Challenge, for example, is a partnership led by Innovate UK. Its budget is £541 million9, and its aim is to develop battery technologies, including those for recycling and re-use.
Action is also needed in areas that, say, affect the auto industry. Simplifying dismantling EV batteries, for instance. Currently, this is a labour intensive and manual process, requiring trained HV technicians.
Unfortunately, even today, battery recycling is often seen as low margin. Therefore, it’s sometimes difficult to get investors in the early stages of a project. Policy-makers need to continue to find incentives so that innovative projects with high potential get off the ground.
- UK and Electric Cars – EV Market Statistics 2024 & Insights (citaevcharger.co.uk)
- Electric Vehicles – UK | Statista Market Forecast
- SCI – C&I Issue 1 2024 – EV batteries: From rarity to recycling boom? (soci.org)
- Battery Recycling Shatters the Myth of EV Battery Waste – Bloomberg
- Government backs battery recycling to grow electric vehicle industry | MRW
- Waste Batteries and Accumulation Regulations, 2009
- What are the technical and policy barriers to increasing EV battery recycling capacity in the UK? – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Government backs battery recycling to grow electric vehicle industry | MRW
- The Faraday Battery Challenge – The Faraday Institution
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