Researchers have developed a new method to recycle electric vehicle batteries using a ground-breaking new approach that many will have experienced in the dentist’s chair.

The Faraday Institution project on the recycling of lithium-ion batteries (ReLiB) led by Professor Andy Abbott at the University of Leicester used a new method, involving ultrasonic waves, to solve a critical challenge: how to separate out valuable materials from electrodes so that the materials can be fully recovered from batteries at the end of their life.

Current recycling methods for lithium-ion battery recycling typically feed end-of-life batteries into a shredder or high-temperature reactor. A complex set of physical and chemical processes are subsequently needed to produce useable materials. These recycling routes are energy intensive and inefficient.

If an alternate approach is taken and end-of-life batteries are disassembled rather than shredded, there is the potential to recover more material, in a purer state. The disassembly of lithium-ion batteries has been shown to recover a high yield (around 80% of the original material) in a purer state than was possible using shredded material.

The stumbling block — of how to remove and separate critical materials (such as lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt) from used batteries in a fast, economical and environmentally-friendly way — can now be avoided thanks to the new approach which adapts technology currently in widespread use in the food preparation industry.

The ultrasonic delamination technique effectively blasts the active materials required from the electrodes leaving virgin aluminium or copper. The process proved highly effective in removing graphite and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides, commonly known as NMC.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Leicester. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.