Lithium Ion Battery Recycling

Does it sound as exciting as it looks?

It's an important chapter in the path of 'buzzhead-dom' development. We buzzheads are constantly attacked by lesser mortals about the evils of EVs and with that the direct full frontal assault on the batteries used in EVs. From the Chinese using child labour to extract the precious metal minerals needed for the batteries (they don't) to the immediate environmental destruction at thermo nuclear meltdown levels as soon as a spade hits the ground (the polar bears don't agree) to the argument that "we're running out of the minerals already and when they're all gone Elon will be on Mars and he's actually a lizard" (we're not, he won't be and he's not).

We've heard it all before. But let me arm you besieged fellow buzzheads with some truth. With some ammo for those conversations around the braai when it comes to debunking a few of the more popular arguments about why EVs are all bad and terrible and their batteries even worse (they're not).

Word.

The picture above is from a modular plant operating in Germiston by a crowd called Cwenga. And what it is doing is recycling lithium ion batteries. Yup. No furnaces from the fiery pits of hell. No slaved demons chained to noxious fume emitting machines having their faces melted off as they stir great big cauldrons of molten metals.

Nope. It's all, quite franky, a bit boring if truth be told.

You begin by collecting a bunch of batteries.

These are firstly then sliced and diced into what looks like Transformer vomit in the picture below.

Then this casserole of pure unadulterated yuck is processed, crushed and powdered into innocuous looking black dust...

which is then fed into a big tank of calcium chloride solution.

Now, it has been a long time since I played as a chemical engineer so bear with whilst I try to explain some quite complex topics that I no longer remember all that clearly in terms that I hope make sense.

The metals are leached into solution - leaching being the same process Joburg's mine dumps got used up by in the process of extracting the remaining gold left in them. From this tank the solution is pumped into the columns shown in the cover picture where ion exchange adsorption takes place with specific targeted resins that pull out nickel, cobalt and manganese. The lithium drops out as a precipitate.

What happens and why is less important than the how. This process you should note doesn't use heat, which means there is no massive energy bills or requirements. It barely uses a small peristaltic pump for crying in a bucket.

It doesn't need overtly harsh chemicals and that means it's safe and easy to use.

And there is very little to nil residual waste because the process is a simple one of loading the resins with the dissolved metals in one flow through and then applying an extraction/separation of the metals in each column from the resins in another flow through. You literally collect and separate the metals in solution into a bucket from where it is relatively easy to add a reagent to crystalise them out.

The resins are 100% reusable and it is estimated will last upwards of three years before requiring replacement. Ditto the chemical solutions used - the beauty of this process is that you're re-using all your chemicals over and over again. Hence the near zero discharge and of course relatively low cost of operation.

The implications are startling to say the least, when you start to think about it.

You have a relatively simple, relatively low cost, relatively low energy usage process to recycle lithium ion batteries in a safe, stable and reliable manner. For reference this small modular system can process 500kg of batteries a day.

Cwenga have made it easy through science.

And that, dear EV haters, you can put in your pipe and smoke.

Now that we can recycle the batteries, when eventually this becomes the only option left for them in the distant future once they have reached end of life in the EV itself, and then end of their second life in a static installation (e.g. your house or factory). EV batteries don't just wear out completely in your EV. They still operate at between an 80% to 90% duty depending on your car manufacturer and hence the second life (which can be upwards of 20 years).

It all helps to prove what I have been saying all along: EVs are better in every way and you should all go out immediately and buy the fastest one you can because, well, they're just brilliant.

I did gloss over one small wrinkle that I didn't fully get to grips with in today's visit to the pilot. This is the initial breakdown process of the batteries into black powder. This is currently being handled by a third party but I understand that it can be added to the recycling facility relatively simply. What this means is that recycling can go to where the batteries are, which is an important consideration.

Cwenga claim that the process will also make money. Naturally this depends on some assumptions but the if the finance side of things checks out with data confirming performance and providing real world data in operations then this recycling operation elevates to a whole new level of exciting. This is because what Cwenga have done so neatly has been to add opportunity into the process of the dismantling of one of the more dominant EV myths/obstacles around recycling.

I shall be watching with great interest.