The future of closed battery material loops is regional. In view of current geopolitical drivers, there will be different priorities in some regions, leading to other key drivers of industry development in the different parts of the material loop. This talk will highlight a number of market drivers that are expected to be specific for Europe and that will likely impact the way circularity of batteries will materialize in Europe.

The ReCell Center has recently expanded its program scope to cover Direct Recycling of Materials, Advanced Resource Recovery, Design for Sustainability, and Modeling and Analysis. The Center continues to scale-up its existing technologies and develop new technologies, applying them to the processing of both manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries. The presentation will highlight the expansion and progress of the Center's Direct Recycling of Materials focus area.

Electric-vehicle demand is accelerating rapidly and so is the need for EV batteries. As these batteries reach end-of-life, significant growth opportunities in the recycling space are emerging. Battery recyclers could adopt key levers to keep or gain an edge in the battery-recycling market.

Market trends, regulations, key players, and technological development surrounding LIB recycling vary significantly from region to region. Based on the future outlook of the EV market in each area, we will introduce our hypothesis on the risks and business opportunities in LIB recycling by considering multiple scenarios for the LIB recycling market.

The global lithium-ion battery market is expected to grow significantly in the next decade. Developing a supply chain from manufacturing lithium-ion batteries to battery recycling is essential for a competitive edge in the lithium-ion global market and to create closed-loop supply chains. This presentation discusses Li-Cycle’s patented Spoke & Hub Technologies-a low-cost, safe, and sustainable process which recycles all types of lithium-ion batteries and battery manufacturing scrap.

Handling and transporting aged or defective battery cells is a key challenge in establishing an efficient battery recycling infrastructure. An important prerequisite for such a system is the development of suitable methods for the pretreatment and deactivation of lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries. Additionally, the extraction of lithium is getting more attention to achieve an overall better recycling efficiency. Here, we present some of our latest results on the topic. 

OnTo will share strategies to improve safety and decrease costs with service at the site. Render-Safe as a mobile, onsite service eliminates flammability hazards when and where they are identified. Cathode-healing is an innovative approach to recover any battery material for reuse, onsite at a factory, or for pretreatment for materials manufacturing. Dr. Sloop will discuss deactivation and cathode-healing of lithium-ion batteries. How does intertization of batteries find a way to improve the value chain? When will industry employ a service? What is the value to the industry? Where will deactivation and direct recycle find their uses in the industry?

Graphite, a critical anode material, presents recycling challenges in the lithium-ion battery industry. We propose a froth flotation process for highly selective recovery of graphite and metals. The recovered graphite undergoes EcoGraf purification, enabling its reuse in new batteries, promoting sustainable resource utilization. This integrated approach advances lithium-ion battery recycling, facilitating the circular economy for these vital materials.

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) recycling is a complex process with crushing and shredding, black mass drying, electrolyte recovery with gas treatment, and finally, classification and sorting. Each step must be integrated upstream and downstream for maximum safety, minimized environmental impacts, with maximum recovery and efficiency.  This presentation reviews current “dry process” installations from pilot demonstration plants to full-scale production and illustrates recovery of black mass, copper, aluminum, plastic and ferrous metals.  The “Dry-Process” is applicable for the recycling of production scrap and End-of-Life (EOL) batteries from the transportation sector, and for small-format batteries from the household consumer sector.    

There is a growing interest in low-cost and scalable recycling processes for spent lithium-ion batteries. This presentation will focus on our recent advancements in direct recycling of spent LIBs, aiming to produce new electrode materials capable of matching the performance of native materials. We will demonstrate successful recycling of various battery materials utilizing the direct regeneration approach, as well as integration of different operational steps into a scalable recycling pathway.

The terms “circularity” and “closed-loop” are often used to describe battery recycling processes like pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy, but these traditional recycling processes are just the first steps in any round-trip journey of battery materials. The typical outputs of battery recycling require extensive processing before they can go into new EV batteries. This presentation puts recycled battery materials under the microscope, and explores the steps needed to engineer new, battery-ready cathode active material (CAM).

Overview of Ecobat Solutions lithium-battery recycling process and operational footprint. Presentation will include overview of best practices in battery collections, transport, and storage, along with battery diagnostics and recycling.