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