Development of Efficient and Scalable Direct Recycling Technology for Lithium-Ion Batteries

The rapid accumulation of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries poses a critical challenge, necessitating efficient recycling to preserve the environment and ensure a sustainable supply of critical materials. This project focused on scaling up direct recycling technology originally developed at the University of California, San Diego, to a multi-kilogram pilot scale under representative operational conditions. Key objectives were achieved, including the refinement of de-energization processes for electric vehicle batteries with varying chemistries, enhancement of cathode and anode material separation processes to achieve over 95 percent purity, over 90 percent yield of active material retrieval from spent batteries, and successful regeneration of 5 kilograms of active material through an energy-efficient recycling process. New lithium-ion battery cells were fabricated from recycled active material and demonstrated a performance equivalent to that of cells made from virgin materials. Above 99-percent purity of cathodes and 99-percent capacity retention as compared to virgin materials was achieved. Life-cycle analysis further evaluated the energy, economic, and environmental impacts of the entire process compared with conventional recycling. Future projects will aim to refine protocols to enhance energy efficiency, reduce operational costs and processing time, and scale cathode regeneration to 100 kilograms per day, with a parallel emphasis on anode regeneration. These results lay the foundation for future commercialization efforts to establish direct recycling capabilities in California.