EV DEAD Thésairent batteries a shocking quantity of useful lithium

The lithium batteries that we deem unfit for use in electric vehicles may always contain large amounts of usable pure lithium that we could recover and reuse – a potentially coherent and abundant offer that we simply do not try strong enough to exploit, suggests a new study.

In a study published on August 14 in the Journal of Environmental ManagementResearchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia maintain that the appearance of lithium remaining in used batteries could fuel a pragmatic and sustainable alternative to Lithium mine. Surprisingly, lithium batteries that are found in discharges keep almost 80% of their lithium capacity – always very usable. Apart from the clear environmental advantage, recycling of lithium batteries could also provide a wide range of socio-economic advantages, the document indicates.

The document, a complete review of the world lithium supply chain, assesses the efficiency of the extraction of lithium from mining and recycling. The mining remains the dominant method for lithium recovery, but its environmental impact should be sufficient reason to possibly move away, the researchers explained in a statement. Recycling, however, could offer much more blow for our money. First, recycling processes produce approximately 61% less carbon than mining while using 83% less energy and 79% less water.

“By recycling these batteries, you can access not only the remaining lithium – which is already purified at almost 99% – but you can also recover the nickel and the cobalt of these batteries,” added Asad Ali, the main study of the study and a postdoctoral student at the ECU, in the press release. Ideally, such recycling installations would not be as demanding on the natural environment as mining, he said.

Again, we have too many slowdraw batteries, noted the researchers – and this supply should only grow. The global lithium -ion battery market should grow at an annual rate of 13%, and we need to consume about 1,600 kilotons of lithium by 2026. In Australia, where researchers are based – a government report Considers that lithium battery waste could amount to 137,000 tonnes each year.

With the right investments in infrastructure, support in this resource could create a profitable new niche in the energy sector, said the co-author of the Sadia Afrin study, also a postdoctoral student at the ECU. But it is an area that will have to develop alongside the technological progress of the industries based on lithium, she added.