Recycling Makes Lithium-Ion Batteries The IT Technology

Recycling Makes Lithium-Ion Batteries The IT Technology

Lithium-ion batteries are the cornerstone of the New Energy Economy — driving the growth of electrification and decarbonization. Indeed, they are central to everything from cell phones to electric vehicles to grid storage. But the value of such devices lies beneath the surface — made up of raw materials that are now trapped in a supply chain maze or come from unfriendly nations. Luckily, the recycling of those raw materials is becoming economically viable. Moreover, the quality of the reprocessed minerals can be as good as "virgin" supplies that are extracted from the Earth. However, mining will have to coexist alongside recycling until those scraps reach scale. "We break down the batteries and extract critical materials. We refine those materials to produce chemicals that go back into batteries," says Tim Johnston, co-founder and executive chair of Li-Cycle Holding Corp., in a chat with this writer. "Those chemicals are the same as any mined materials: they are broken down to a molecular level, the metals are dissolved, and we rebuild them," he adds. "We can recover up to 95% of all the materials in the lithium battery and return them to new batteries or to the economy. This is a net