December 04, 2024 • 7 mins read
Part 4
Five essential factors for net zero battery recycling and the six critical questions to consider
Battery recycling is essential to a sustainable electric vehicle industry. In our latest installment of the Journey to a net zero battery series, we explore what’s holding things back.
Achieving a net zero future for the electric vehicle industry – where electric vehicle (EV) batteries have a net zero carbon footprint – requires huge demand for materials and a large-scale circular economy to meet that demand.
In Western economies, industry players have struggled to scale quickly enough to make this a reality, while in Asia we’ve seen this is both achievable and economic under the right conditions.
As the demand for materials and the need for more sustainable products increase, what are the key factors needed to unlock battery recycling – and how can we ensure recycling supports net zero goals?
“Currently, there are more questions than answers, but that’s the point. The future of recycling is still uncertain,” states Greg Pitt, Vice President, Battery Materials.
In the West, the first attempt failed
Between 2020 and 2021, analyst reports promoted future visions of a rapidly growing battery recycling industry in Europe and North America. The sector’s growth would be tied directly to EV manufacturing forecasts, albeit delayed by the average life of a battery.
“It seemed too good to be true – a future market you could see on the horizon, plan and prepare for, and deploy at scale to meet supply and demand curves,” says Pitt
Producers of battery materials announced “closed loop” strategies to build recycling facilities alongside precursor, cathode and battery manufacturing plants. At this time, nickel prices were high, and the industry expected nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and its variants would be the cathode chemistries of choice.
“A lot has changed since then,” says Pitt. “We look to enter 2025 in a completely different world, with recycling very much on the back burner. Economies grapple with a perfect storm of faltering EV sales growth, turbulent geopolitical environments, and a general lack of investor confidence.
“Rather than ask what went wrong, we focus on what’s gone right in recycling technology and the six questions we need to answer if we’re to get Western recycling right the second time.”
There are five “conditions precedent” for a circular battery economy
“Conditions precedent are the essential elements or requirements that need to be in place for the recycling industry to succeed, with China setting the global benchmark,” says Pitt. “China’s recycling economy is in full swing, and it didn’t happen by accident.”
China’s battery and battery materials industry is highly developed and driven by robust domestic adoption of EVs. This creates a strong and expanding supply of input materials (commonly known as black mass) and a growing demand for end products (EVs) – the two essential elements for fostering industry growth.
“In addition, China has a high level of vertical integration and colocation across its sector, through industry partnerships or vertically integrated businesses, which addresses many of the interface inefficiencies hampering industrial growth,” says Pitt.
China also enjoys a landscape in which available technologies for materials recovery are economical and palatable.
By firing on the five cylinders of supply, demand, vertical integration, policy settings, and technology, a circular economy is born
Technology is the deciding factor
As supply, demand, vertical integration and policy settings create a fertile environment for a recycling industry, it’s in the technology category where success or failure will be determined.
In Europe, for example, demand and supply drivers are stagnating due to weaker than expected EV sales, falling commodity prices, and significant challenges facing the regional automotive sector, especially in Germany.
“Predictions for growth in 2025 or 2026 are largely dependent on the European Economic Community’s ability to restore consumer confidence and incentivize further capital investment,” says Pitt.
“Policy settings across the EU are already established to mandate certain levels of recycled content – requirements that initially come into effect in 2027. Amid current market turbulence, we’re seeing a growing appetite for market consolidation, particularly in terms of strategic partnerships to better vertically integrate value chain segments and players.”
The scene is being set for a resurgence in recycling activity across Europe. However, many questions remain across the technology landscape.
Six questions to ask about recycling technology
Compared to Asian pacesetters, Western countries often face challenges when it comes to the technical feasibility and economic viability of their processing technologies for cathode and anode materials.
“We’ve assessed various materials recovery pathways in the battery sector and identified six key questions to evaluate their potential for success and contribution to a net zero future,” says Pitt.
1. Can we reduce labor intensity?
Collecting, separating, and dismantling end-of-life batteries is often seen as a labor-intensive process. Unlike other recyclable materials, such as glass and paper, batteries pose a significant safety risk until they are fully discharged. This makes collection and transportation complex and resource-intensive.
These steps can become expensive in regions with high labor costs. There’s a major opportunity to improve public education on appropriate disposal methods, and to use artificial intelligence and robotics to reduce the need for manual labor in safely discharging and dismantling batteries before converting them into black mass. Scale is a key enabler for these investments.
2. Is there flexibility to process variable feedstock chemistries?
After removing easily separable components like casings and connectors, the typical approach is to shred the remaining batteries into a mixture called black mass. However, the composition of black mass varies depending on the battery types being processed, such as NMC vs. LFP batteries (although even within a single chemistry a great variety of dopants and other additives exist). This creates a trade-off: for process engineers, the ideal is a consistent feedstock, as this improves recovery efficiency. As battery chemistries evolve with new models, there must be a balance between the labor-intensive work needed to separate different battery types (for more consistent black mass) versus the ability of downstream processes to recover materials effectively. Technologies that can handle diverse black mass compositions reduce upstream labor, but this often comes with higher costs and scaling challenges. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution; success will depend on designing processes that can economically adapt to changing battery chemistries over time.
3. Does the energy intensity of the process justify the value created?
Recovery processes require energy, and when that energy is zero carbon, abundant, and cheap, almost any process is feasible. “Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in many regions,” says Pitt. “To reach net zero, the energy used to process black mass must be renewable, though lower-energy options can serve as stepping stones.” Some recycling methods, such as thermal treatment, are more energy-intensive than purely chemical processes. “The trade-off here is whether higher material recovery rates from energy-intensive operations justify the associated environmental impacts,” says Pitt.
4. Are the recovery rates – by percentage and mineral type – optimal?
“Recycling is not a zero sum game; you won’t recover everything, and it comes at a cost,” says Pitt. “When evaluating recycling processes, it’s crucial to consider what is recovered and what is not. Nickel, lithium, and cobalt are often highlighted as key materials, but at what recovery rate and cost?
“In many processes we’ve assessed, the graphite in anode materials is consumed in thermal treatments while serving as a reductant and energy source,” says Pitt. “Both steps result in CO2 emission. But does releasing the carbon from the graphite into the atmosphere align with our goal of a net zero future?”
5. What are the waste streams and by-products?
A by-product is a waste stream that can be used elsewhere. In battery recycling, many processes use sulphuric acid to dissolve metals, producing sodium sulphate in large quantities. In some regions, sodium sulphate is repurposed for products like detergents, but in others, it remains a waste.Recovery processes that reduce or avoid sodium sulphate production are more attractive in regions without alternative uses for it.
For lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode chemistries, some technologies extract lithium as lithium carbonate and produce ferrophosphate (FP) as a by-product. “However, FP is typically unsuitable for reuse as cathode material due to damage during processing. While it can be used in fertilizers, this is more about repurposing than recycling. Is that enough?” asks Pitt.
6. Can we go “direct to cathode”?
Most recycling methods aim to break down black mass into chemical compounds, like lithium carbonate or nickel sulphate, which are then used to make new active materials. However, some processes have been developed to directly produce precursor or cathode materials from recycling. These approaches offer more sustainable and cost-effective ways to create circularity.
“Using black mass to directly produce pCAM or CAM is an appealing approach for us,” says Laura Leonard, President of Technology Solutions. “We see the next generation of recycling technologies being those that directly feed into the cathode material supply chain, minimizing waste and reducing energy, capital, and operational costs. This is the area we’re closely monitoring.”
One step closer in the journey to a net zero battery
“No one said this would be easy,” concludes Pitt. “Successful industries require strong supply and demand, supportive policy settings to incubate innovation, and vertical integration to drive efficiencies – but in the battery recycling world, technological advances hold the key to unlocking a net zero future.”
While there are challenges, many can be overcome with the help of experienced partners in scaling and de-risking technology. With a collective drive to develop viable recycling solutions, we’re taking important steps toward a net zero battery.
Missed parts one, two or three in our ‘Journey to a net zero battery’ series? Click on the tiles below to read them now.
Plus, be sure to download our whitepaper, The Battery Materials Buildout: Doing More With Less.
