Carbon dilemma: How can electric vehicles become more eco-friendly? - CNA

RECYCLING AND REUSE

Such battery problems could be resolved through recycling and the reuse of the battery raw materials.

Such initiatives are still not widespread though.

Industry statistics show that only 5 per cent of all lithium-ion batteries are currently recycled.

Experts say this boils down to costs.

There are two main ways to deactivate the lithium-ion battery – smelting and leaching. As both methods are costly, this is a major barrier to recycling.

Existing methods of recycling are also not environmentally friendly.

“The majority of batteries are still recycled using pyrometallurgy – furnaces and smelting, and trying to separate the metals using heat. This has a massive energy and carbon footprint. The gas emissions are considerable - you can imagine firing a furnace the size of two HDB flats or two condos, 24 hours a day,” said Mr Leon Farrant, CEO of Green Li-ion.

Green Li-ion hopes to address these challenges with its lithium-ion recycling technology.

This utilises a hydrometallurgical process, or a chemical process to rejuvenate the battery materials so that they can be recycled infinitely.

The startup says it is able to continually recycle the battery materials and maintain almost the full lifespan of the battery.

Mr Farrant said: “We are taking in spent lithium-ion batteries, we're stripping it back to the absolute natural form of the chemistry and then rebuilding it. There is a 2 per cent loss. So if you had 100 kilograms of cathode material, you would then have 98 per cent - 98 kilograms of cathode material at the end.”

In this manner, Green Li-ion has been able to create a circular economy around the electric vehicle  battery - retrieving, recycling and re-circulating the raw materials such as cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium into new batteries.

It is a closed loop technology, meaning that nothing is discharged other than what can be sold, and everything else is reused.

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2021-08-25 09:02:00Z
CBMifWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYnVzaW5lc3MvY2FyYm9uLWRpbGVtbWEtaG93LWNhbi1lbGVjdHJpYy12ZWhpY2xlcy1iZWNvbWUtbW9yZS1lY28tZnJpZW5kbHktbW9uZXktbWluZC0yMTM1MDAx0gEA