The recyclability of batteries
[Applause]
electric cars
are currently the popular choice for
consumers
especially in norway
these help tremendously in reducing
the greenhouse gas emissions and
improving the air quality
let’s say you go to buy an electric car
what questions would you ask
let me take a guess you would ask about
the range
right so you should you need to know
how far can the car take you on a charge
you would probably ask about the
charging time
what else could we ask
who would ask about the recyclability of
the battery
why don’t we ask it should we ask it
let’s say you do what answers would you
expect
chances are that they don’t know
chances are that they’ve never been
asked this question before
most of the car dealers will have to
pass on
they’ll say they’ll get back with an
answer when they do
their honest answer will be no
best case partially our car batteries
are partially recycled on the other hand
if they do come back and tell you that
their car batteries are completely
recycled
do not take their answer at the face
value
no car batteries that have reached their
end of life
are totally recyclable or are totally
recycled what if i were to tell you
that in 30 years from now there’s a high
chance
we’re going to run out of some of the
essential materials
that make up a car battery unless
we recycle them that would be
catastrophic for a large number of
utilities
which run on batteries smartphones
tablets
ipads one of the materials that is
definitely not being recycled
is lithium on an average
lithium makes up two percentage by
weight of a car battery
although needed in small quantity it
can’t do without it
there’s a big challenge right there the
geographical distribution
of lithium over 90 percentage of the
lithium output
comes from chile australia and argentina
from salty water and through mining
activities
this makes european union the second
largest
importer of lithium in the world
although there are some reserves in
portugal spain and finland
if we were to consider the total number
of electric cars sold
just in the year of 2017
we would have used 10 percentage of the
portuguese lithium reserves
the european commission in its latest
report has stated
that there would be a 16-fold increase
in the demand for lithium
by the end of the decade and a 60-fold
increase
in the demand of lithium by 2050.
we cannot let the lithium in our car
batteries
go to waste we must recycle them
so why am i talking about recycling
why not reuse a retired life of the
battery
isn’t that easier just to power street
lamps
well in that case we are talking about
stockpiling huge volumes of
end-of-life batteries which are fire and
safety hazards
so what volumes are we talking about
here
if we would consider the end-of-life
batteries by the end of decade
they would fill up as much as four times
the gibraltar islands in the uk
let’s take a completely different
scenario can we make car batteries
without lithium
well there are several research
investigations going on
trying to produce non-lithium-based car
batteries
although the technologies are not ready
enough to be in the market
when they would be they can’t completely
replace
the lithium-ion batteries therefore
we are left with only one option of
recycling
in order to get back the essential
lithium
but recycling is difficult
why so as i told you before
most of the car batteries are partially
recycled
some of them are not recycled at all
the cost of recycling is too high
the cost of the process should be lower
than the value of the materials
recovered which is simply not the case
right now
these car batteries are designed for a
minimum lifetime
of 10 years which means presently we
just don’t have enough volumes
to make the recycling process cost
effective
however from 10 years from now when
these cars would have driven
long enough the batteries need to be
replaced
and the volumes for recycling would not
be a challenge
having said all this the technology for
recycling
is currently the biggest challenge
current processes of recycling rely on
throwing the battery parts into a
furnace
whereby the essential lithium is lost
chemical processes can be used to
recover lithium
but that’s not the industrial priority
right now
why so there are no strict
regulations guiding recycling there are
two important directives
when it comes to recycling of car
batteries
the european commission directive
related to recycling of batteries
stipulates that 50 percentage by weight
of a car battery
must be recycled the european commission
directive with respect to end-of-life
batteries
and cars stipulates that 85 percentage
by weight of a car should be reused and
recovered
unless there are more stringent
legislations
for recycling there would be industrial
shortcuts
so let’s assume 10 years down the line
there would be enough volumes
that would be needed to be recycled
there would be demanding legislations
which will govern recycling but will the
technology
be robust enough to handle all different
types of batteries
there lies a basic problem in the design
of the batteries
i’ll show you why
these are two different battery cell
types
the prismatic cell and the leaf cell
they look very different in design right
they also have very different battery
chemistries
these batteries they make up
the modules and the modules then finally
make up
the battery pack and that is what
drives the electric car
so the volume and the scale at which we
are talking about recycling
there needs to be an easier disassembly
of the batteries currently most of the
work is done by hands
by people who are skilled enough not to
hurt themselves
however they these batteries can explode
and when they do they release noxious
gases
additionally the sealants and the
adhesives which are used in the battery
pack
make the disassembly work very hard
robotic disassembly shall be the future
solution
the robots shall be fast enough to
handle huge volumes of batteries
and cause minimum risk to human beings
but for robots to deliver their full
potential
there should be standardized designs for
the batteries
a change in the design will also be a
win for the manufacturers
who are looking for cheaper raw
materials
easier disassembly would mean that you
can extract
the valuable materials in a cleaner
state
which can then be sold or used for
battery manufacturing
therefore the idea design for recycle
needs to be introduced into battery
manufacturing
there needs to be closer tie ups between
the car makers
and the recyclers but
is it just them we all have a role
in this we are in a situation
where we need to mine the essential
materials
from urban commodities such as batteries
urban mining shall be the future
there needs to be action from the policy
makers
the car manufacturers the battery
manufacturers
the car dealers car users
recyclers and researchers like us
all along the value chain
if you are sitting and thinking that not
using electric cars will be the solution
then let me tell you this the same
materials
make up the batteries which run your
smartphones
laptops ipads you definitely don’t want
to lose them
what can you and me do
we all have a small voice but together
we have a huge voice
if we start asking the right question
and put the recyclability of
battery a criterion for our purchase
manufacturers will listen
in the beginning maybe just one but
others
will soon follow every small step
will add in this small town of trondheim
if you wanted vegetarian food at a
restaurant few years ago
you would be served a menu from the meal
without the fish or the meat
and now there are fancy vegan dishes
available
on the menu why so people wanted it
they asked the right question and the
restaurants put it as a criterion
on their menu so
the next time you go to buy an electric
car
besides asking for the range and the
charging time
please do ask about the recyclability
of the battery thank you