The high energy density, performance and durability of lithium-ion batteries have positioned them among the best energy storage devices, but what will happen to them when their useful life is over?
Industrial lithium-ion batteries are designed to be recycled, an essential feature for sustainability and the generation of more sustainable production and consumption models based on the circular economy.
Quartux, a leading industrial battery energy storage company, is aware of the importance of recycling lithium-ion batteries and, as part of its innovative energy storage system, plans to recycle them at the end of the useful life of the industrial lithium-ion batteries it uses in its platform, which have a performance of around 20 years.
The recycling of industrial lithium ion batteries has a positive impact on sustainability and is part of the commitment of companies to design cost-effective and environmentally friendly strategies that contribute to the reduction of the environmental impact of the battery industry. It makes businesses more competitive and sustainable.
The development of lithium-ion battery recycling processes helps to increase the profitability and sustainability of the battery industry and is a delicate process that requires a high degree of expertise for waste management.
As part of its commitment to the environment and the professionalism of its work team, Quartux has scheduled the recycling of the industrial batteries used in its storage system, once their useful life is over. In these cases, the lithium-ion batteries are replaced by new ones and those that have finished their life cycle are collected for their subsequent discharge and dismantling.
The collection, discharge and dismantling of industrial lithium-ion batteries are the first steps in the logistics of dismantling lithium-ion batteries used in storage systems that have reached the end of their useful life. In addition, transport costs and all the special measures necessary to correctly handle the lithium-ion batteries to be sent for recycling must be taken into account in this operation.
In the recycling chain, battery dismantling and shredding operations are very delicate processes, since lithium-ion battery waste is very hazardous, as it has corrosive and explosive properties, as well as toxic chemicals that must be handled with great care throughout the entire operation to prevent possible accidents.
Also, during disassembly operations of industrial lithium-ion batteries used for electrical energy storage, one of the main challenges is to ensure that the separation of the components that are considered recoverable is carried out correctly.
Companies specialized in the recycling of lithium-ion batteries are constantly searching for technologies that help in the classification of industrial battery chemistry and their active materials through advanced artificial intelligence techniques and automation technologies.
With this, it is possible to carry out the separation of its components, such as the casing, the black mass of the collectors and other components through the use of magnetic, electrostatic, gravimetric and mechanical separators, which are used after the crushing process.
This separation process must be safe and cost-effective and allows a higher yield to be achieved in the recovery of the elements for recycling. After component separation, advanced metallurgical processes are carried out to recover the main elements of lithium ion batteries, such as critical valuable metals.
Currently, there is a great diversity of options for the recycling of industrial lithium-ion batteries, such as thermal pretreatment (used to eliminate organic and electrolytic components), pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes, and there are even procedures in which a combination of several of these options is used.
Hydrometallurgy has positioned itself as one of the most important alternatives for recovering the chemical products contained in industrial lithium-ion batteries, which must preserve their quality for subsequent use in the manufacture of new active materials.
However, to date, the research and study of different alternatives to carry out this separation and purification process to reduce as efficiently as possible the carbon footprint of the manufacture of industrial lithium-ion batteries continues.
