Preface.  Talk to your typical capitalist / environmentalist and they will both agree that we will never run out of anything because we can recycle.  But we aren’t.  Especially since it’s cheaper to buy newly mined metals than to recycle them. Here’s a summary of the challenges for EV batteries:

1. Batteries are not designed to be recycled
2. Batteries vary widely in construction and chemistry, making it hard to design efficient recycling systems
3. Cut too deep or the wrong place of a cell and it can combust, release toxic fumes and short-circuit
4. The technology of recycling batteries has a long way to go. So far just single cells yielding tens of grams of cathode powders has been done.
5. Cathodes have the most valuable metals (i.e. cobalt and nickel), but as batteries evolve, future cathodes may be made of materials of no worth for buyers
6. Lithium is finite but not recycled because it’s cheap
7. Other metals are needles in a haystack, too hard to find and recover
8. It can take 2 hours to crack open a battery and dismantle them
9. The glue and polyurethane cement holding components in place requires toxic solvents harmful to workers
10. High cost of transporting combustible batteries

In addition, it is hard to separate metals from electronic devices, and even impossible if they are an alloy or embedded with other metals that chemicals, heat, pressure and other techniques can’t separate out.

With peak world oil production having occurred in 2018, energy to mine and recycle will get increasingly expensive at the same time as ores continue to decline in quality, requiring ever more energy to obtain.

The limits to mineral extraction are not limits of quantity but limits of energy. Extracting them takes energy. The more dispersed and low quality the ore is, the more energy required. Not enough energy is produced to mine anything but conventional ores, so forget about filtering trillions of gallons of seawater to get gold or uranium.  Long before fossils “run out”, if oil peaks (which it did in 2018), then game over, fossil fuels are necessary for the extraction, transport, smelting and crushing of ores, and the easy high-grade ores have already been mined, leaving crummy ore and expensive declining fossils to extract it (Bardi 2014).

Alice Friedemann  www.energyskeptic.com Women in ecology  author of 2021 Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy best price here; 2015 When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, Barriers to Making Algal Biofuels, & “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan Chips and Crackers”.  Podcasts: Crazy Town, Collapse Chronicles, Derrick Jensen, Practical Prepping, KunstlerCast 253, KunstlerCast278, Peak Prosperity

***

Morse I (2021) With millions of electric vehicles set to hit the road, scientists are seeking better battery recycling methods. Science 372: 780-783

If it ends up in a landfill, its cells can release problematic toxins, including heavy metals. And recycling the battery can be a hazardous business, warns materials scientist Dana Thompson of the University of Leicester. Cut too deep into a Tesla cell, or in the wrong place, and it can short-circuit, combust, and release toxic fumes.

That’s just one of the many problems confronting researchers trying to tackle an emerging problem: how to recycle the millions of electric vehicle (EV) batteries that manufacturers expect to produce over the next few decades. Current EV batteries “are really not designed to be recycled,” says Thompson, a research fellow at the Faraday Institution, a research center focused on battery issues in the United Kingdom.  Several carmakers have said they plan to phase out combustion engines within a few decades, and industry analysts predict at least 145 million EVs will be on the road by 2030, up from just 11 million last year. “People are starting to realize this is an issue.”

Recycling won’t be easy.

Batteries differ widely in chemistry and construction, which makes it difficult to create efficient recycling systems. And the cells are often held together with tough glues that make them difficult to take apart. That has contributed to an economic obstacle: It’s often cheaper for battery makers to buy freshly mined metals than to use recycled materials.

EV batteries are constructed a bit like nested dolls. Typically, a main pack holds several modules, each of which is constructed from numerous smaller cells. Inside each cell, lithium atoms move through an electrolyte between a graphite anode and a cathode sheet composed of a metal oxide. Batteries are usually defined by the metals in the cathode. There are three main types: nickel-cobalt-aluminum, iron-phosphate, and nickel-manganese-cobalt.

Now, recyclers primarily target metals in the cathode, such as cobalt and nickel, that fetch high prices. (Lithium and graphite are too cheap for recycling to be economical.) But because of the small quantities, the metals are like needles in a haystack: hard to find and recover.

To extract those needles, recyclers rely on two techniques, known as pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. The more common is pyrometallurgy, in which recyclers first mechanically shred the cell and then burn it, leaving a charred mass of plastic, metals, and glues. At that point, they can use several methods to extract the metals, including further burning. “Pyromet is essentially treating the battery as if it were an ore” straight from a mine, Gaines says. Hydrometallurgy, in contrast, involves dunking battery materials in pools of acid, producing a metal-laden soup. Sometimes the two methods are combined.

Each has advantages and downsides. Pyrometallurgy, for example, doesn’t require the recycler to know the battery’s design or composition, or even whether it is completely discharged, in order to move ahead safely. But it is energy intensive. Hydrometallurgy can extract materials not easily obtained through burning, but it can involve chemicals that pose health risks. And recovering the desired elements from the chemical soup can be difficult, although researchers are experimenting with compounds that promise to dissolve certain battery metals but leave others in a solid form, making them easier to recover. For example, Thompson has identified one candidate, a mixture of acids and bases called a deep eutectic solvent, that dissolves everything but nickel.

Both processes produce extensive waste and emit greenhouse gases, studies have found. And the business model can be shaky: Most operations depend on selling recovered cobalt to stay in business, but battery makers are trying to shift away from that relatively expensive metal. If that happens, recyclers could be left trying to sell piles of “dirt,” says materials scientist Rebecca Ciez of Purdue University.

So far, direct recycling experiments have only focused on single cells and yielded just tens of grams of cathode powders.

Given the rapidly changing battery market, Gaines notes, cathodes manufactured today might not be able to find a future buyer. Recyclers would be “recovering a dinosaur. No one will want the product.”

Another challenge is efficiently cracking open EV batteries. Nissan’s rectangular Leaf battery module can take 2 hours to dismantle. Tesla’s cells are unique not only for their cylindrical shape, but also for the almost indestructible polyurethane cement that holds them together.

Engineers might be able to build robots that could speed battery disassembly, but sticky issues remain even after you get inside the cell, researchers note. That’s because more glues are used to hold the anodes, cathodes, and other components in place. One solvent that recyclers use to dissolve cathode binders is so toxic that the European Union has introduced restrictions on its use, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined last year that it poses an “unreasonable risk” to workers.

Another problem to be solved is who should bear primary responsibility for making recycling happen? “Is it my responsibility because I bought [an EV] or is it the manufacturer’s responsibility because they made it and they’re selling it?”

Recycling researchers say effective battery recycling will require more than just technological advances. The high cost of transporting combustible items long distances or across borders can discourage recycling. As a result, placing recycling centers in the right places could have a “massive impact,” Harper says. “But there’s going to be a real challenge in systems integration and bringing all these different bits of research together.”

Related posts (recycling, peak minerals)

• Why rare and valuable metals are not recycled
• Renewables: not enough minerals, energy, time or clean and green
• Minerals essential for wind, solar, and high-tech, are anything but clean and green
• High-Tech can’t last: limited essential elements with limited lifespans
• Peak Stainless Steel
• Peak Helium
• Peak Gold
• Peak Uranium
• The coming Copper Peak
• Getting 100% renewable power means a lot of dirty mining
• Peak Cobalt
• Minerals & Energy from Ugo Bardi’s “Extracted”
• Minerals and War from Ugo Bardi’s “Extracted”
• Mining: Waste, Pollution, Destruction
• Ugo Bardi predictions of the future
• Minerals and War
• Minerals: Natural gas
• Minerals: Coal
• Mineral: Soil
• Ugo Bardi’s The Universal Mining Machine
• Mining: Waste, Pollution, Destruction from Ugo Bardi’s “Extracted”
• China controls over 90% of rare earth mineral production
• How long will minerals last?
• The race to adapt, a book review of Klare’s “The Race for what’s left”
• Theo Henckens: do we need mining quotas to prevent mineral depletion?
• 328 Million Americans use 3.2 million pounds of minerals, metals, and fuels in their lifetime
• Phosphate: All hopes rest on Morocco with 75% of remaining reserves

References

Bardi U. 2014. Extracted: How the Quest for Mineral Wealth Is Plundering the Planet. Chelsea Green.