Production
LIB production is very complex and involves several steps, from mining to battery pack production. Extraction of metals occurs in different parts of the world; however, China is currently dominating cell production including cathode and anode production. Some raw materials are critical (high supply risks and very economic important) for EU including cobalt, graphite and lithium.
Metals are mined for the cathode, and they are refined to sulphates or in the case of lithium, sometimes used as hydroxide. After mining and refining, the active cathode material is produced. The extraction of metals is highly impacting the environment and people working and living near the extraction sites. The battery cell is constructed with the anode, cathode, electrolyte, separator, plastics, steel, copper, and aluminium. The cathodes are made of different chemistries depending on the application and the anode is usually based on graphite with the exception of LTO chemistry.
The trends for coming years for the battery chemistries in products is not only relevant for the raw material required at the production, but also for the volumes of batteries entering recycling. This is because the chemistries determine the amount of specific raw materials (e.g., cobalt and nickel), which can be recovered.
There is much research going on for new chemistries, and the main drivers are energy density increase to increase the range for cars, to reduce costs and to reduce the need for critical raw materials such as cobalt.
The key market sectors in the EU for LIBs are automotive and to a smaller extent portable devices. The growth for markets sold in each market in the coming 10–15 years will probably mainly be on the automotive side. Sales for pure electric (BEV) passenger cars are dominating the growth. Other important products – which are growing considerably up to 2030 – are passenger car PHEVs, busses, and LCV (light commercial vehicles). Also, batteries in power tools and tablet and smartphones have been sold more and will continue to increase until 2030.
Use
The main use is for automotive application and the second largest use is for portable devices, assuming that the pattern seen in Europe also applies for the Nordics.
For some usages, for example for power tools, high power and thus high C-rate (high current) is needed from the battery, but the energy storing capacity may be lower. Since it varies how much time people use the tool per use, the battery is often over dimensioned for private use.
For portable batteries for portable electronics such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, loudspeakers, the batteries are built-in and laymen often may not be able to replace them; especially for waterproof products.
Especially for replaced automotive batteries, typically, the batteries still have energy capacity left, which give opportunities for refurbishment or remanufacturing and achieving a second life in vehicles or in other application e.g. for energy storage in buildings or as electric grid support. As long as there is a market and a value of these second life batteries, a larger part of the technical lifetime of the batteries are likely to be achieved before scrapped.
For EV batteries, it is common to send for a second life for industrial or commercial energy storage. In Sweden for example, many used EV batteries are sent to the real estate market and used in the rooftops of buildings to store energy produced by solar panels. For electronic devices, the main approach currently is to fully replace the batteries with new ones rather than to repair old batteries.
End of life
After the user is no longer using the product and wants to scrap it, the ownership of the battery becomes of high importance. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for batteries means that the company placing the batteries on the market is responsible for their collection when they are scrapped by the consumer.
There are no legal requirements for the owner of a battery to send it for recycling when it is no longer used by the consumer, which is why many end-of-life batteries for consumer electronics may stay in with the original owner for many years instead of getting recycled. For EV batteries, like LFP batteries, batteries may be disassembled from buses and left in storage indefinitely until a purpose for them is found.
Many small batteries are not collected for battery recycling because they are integrated into the device and cannot be disassembled. They may therefore end up in electronic (WEEE) recycling instead where there is only little chance for the battery metals to be recycled.
EV batteries are supposed to be removed during the pre-treatment process to comply with the ELV Directive (Directive on end-of-life vehicle), and the percent of batteries for which it takes place should be high as it directly correlates with the stock available for the recycling industry.
Recycling
There is a lot of variation when it comes to recycling between what types of recycling is performed and what actors are involved. Even within the bigger recycling categories, such as hydrometallurgy or pyrometallurgy, there can be major differences in how companies perform the recycling. Differences that different actors in the recycling chain choose may include: what metals and other materials are recovered, what percentage of cobalt/nickel/lithium/manganese are recovered, what type of solvents are used in hydrometallurgical recycling and what type of pre-treatment is done.
The main categories of recycling today are hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgic with subsequent hydrometallurgy. Both have different pros and cons with regard to costs, recovery efficiency, flexibility/adaptability to different battery chemistries, the need for a disassembly step, and energy use.
Pyrometallurgy means heating of batteries to smelt the metals while hydrometallurgy uses acids or bases for dissolving them. But first dismantling of parts and other pre-treatments need to be done. For hydrometallurgical recycling knowledge about the cathode chemistry is important why it is recommended to clearly mark the battery with this information, perhaps with electronic tags to facilitate sorting.
In battery recycling, the chemistry of the electrodes matters, especially the cathode. Most of the value is found in the cathode, which is where valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium are found. Mobile phones, tablets and computers use Li-ion batteries with high-quality Co content (>12%), and this high Co concentration means that it is profitable both for the producers of these products and the recyclers to try to recycle the metals in these batteries. On the other hand, tool batteries usually contain around 6%, which is why it is not as profitable to handle (recyclers typically do not pay for these batteries but charge a fee for recycling them).
Currently, the volumes of batteries are not sufficient for hydrometallurgy of black mass in the Nordics. There are also other challenges that have to be overcome for a functioning LIB recycling.
The current battery directive does not place specific limitations on the recycled content of lithium-ion batteries, meaning that recyclers would usually recycle the easiest-to-recycle or most valuable materials. The proposal for the new regulation will likely require recyclers to introduce different methods of recycling in order to adjust the percentage of metals which are recovered.
One problem when reducing cobalt in the batteries is that the value for the recycler is reduced. LFP is therefore not recycled at all in Europe at the moment. This obstacle may be mitigated by the proposed battery regulation with its proposed recovery rates of cobalt, lithium, and nickel as well as the proposed recycled contents in the production of new batteries. The proposed directive will also force the companies in the battery supply chain to be more transparent regarding ensuring recyclability (enabling disassembly).