Recycling

Reuse

Cost of disassembling and recycling battery (specialist, costly work)

What value does the refurbished battery have?

Industry: Recycling

What value does the recovered material have?

Challenges

Success Factors

Cost of refurbishing battery

Handling, transporting EOL batteries; payment to the owner. Costs

Handling, transporting EOL batteries; payment to the owner.

Reuse

Recycle

Refurbished batteries holds higher value* (Melin, Update on used EV battery prices) than recycled content: cells with minimal issues/cosmetic damage that can operate like a first life battery pack.

Closed loop recycling of batteries and the use of those recycled metals can support in De-risking of supply chain for materials required for battery production, reduce landfill & CO2 emissions in the life cycle of batteries, and also support in meeting “Rules of Origin” laws.

New battery pack pricing has increased to an average of $151/kWh thus increasing the demand for re-use of batteries wherever possible (e.g., ESS applications) instead of choosing new battery packs.

Recycling costs Asia 10 - 14 $/kWh (pyro); 8 - 10 $/kWh (hydro) West 18 - 22 $/kWh (pyro); 12 - 14$/kWh (hydro)

Ability to win over the competition posed by new batteries, procurement of reliable and continuous feedstock, and granular data access..

Ability to scale, ability to handle multiple chemistries or have a homogenous supply of right scale, high capacity utilization, access to feedstock

All battery chemistries may not be appropriate for re-use given the safety, cycle life, degradation curve and discharge characteristics.

Collection and transportation costs, recovery rates, value of recovered materials, waste produced in the recycling process may pose challenges

Volta Foundation

Extracted from the PDF; charts and images may read imperfectly.