Second life for batteries

Second life for batteries

According to current forecasts, the demand for battery cells for electric cars in Europe will be five times higher than the production volume by 2040. The result: raw materials are in short supply. One solution would be cost-efficient recycling, but only between eight and 22 percent of the necessary metals are currently recovered. A consortium consisting of FILL, TU Graz, AVL and the Automobile Cluster wants to set an important course for the future recycling of batteries with the “BattBox” project. The research project aims for multi-stage recycling concepts. Due to the lack of standardization in chemistry, design and decomposability, the project partners want to develop a wide range of possible processes. At each process stage, a diagnosis and disassembly of the exposed components is carried out and checked for economic and safety-critical aspects. Recycling should produce high-quality, unmixed raw materials with maximum reusability.

The battery cycle project is as broad as it is detailed and will lay the foundation for the efficient recycling of e-car batteries. Josef Ecker, project manager at FILL, is confident: "No electric vehicle battery is too difficult for us. The more complex the batteries examined are, the more exciting and far-reaching the results of the project will be." In order for electromobility to exploit its potential in terms of more environmentally friendly mobility, a lot of effort is still required along the entire value chain - from the extraction of primary raw materials to the recovery of the materials used and the reuse of used but functional batteries. “The ‘BattBox’ project takes important steps to exploit the still untapped and unused potential to increase the sustainability of electromobility,” emphasizes Florian Feist from the Institute for Vehicle Safety at Graz University of Technology. Alexander Harrich, project manager at AVL List GmbH, explains his company's motivation: "Many lithium-ion batteries in old cars can continue to be used in a stationary storage system. It would be a shame not to do this. The BattBox project contributes to making the reuse and recycling of batteries more efficient."