{"id":12899,"date":"2021-06-30T11:58:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T10:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=12899"},"modified":"2022-06-23T09:05:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T08:05:39","slug":"using-ultrasonic-waves-for-electric-vehicle-battery-recycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/using-ultrasonic-waves-for-electric-vehicle-battery-recycling\/12899\/","title":{"rendered":"Using ultrasonic waves for electric vehicle battery recycling"},"content":{"rendered":"
The new method, developed by researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Leicester<\/a>, who are collaborating on the Faraday Institution project on the recycling of lithium-ion batteries<\/a> (ReLiB), employs ultrasonic waves to isolate precious materials from the electrodes, achieving efficient electric vehicle battery recycling.<\/p>\n The novel method not only provides a vital solution for electric vehicle battery recycling but also does it 100 times quicker, as well as being greener, and accomplishing a higher purity of recovered materials in comparison to traditionally used techniques, delivering what will be a critical strategy in implementing an economic and ecological life cycle for future electric vehicle batteries.<\/p>\n Their research has been published in Green Chemistry<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Faraday Institution team has been investigating batteries’ life cycles, designing innovative methods to optimise their economic and environmental potential, from their initial production phase to their inevitable recycling at the end of their life cycle. A considerable obstacle in fully realising their potential has been materials segregation \u2013 the process of separating and removing materials in batteries \u2013 in an efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly way. Materials contained in electric vehicle batteries such as nickel, lithium, cobalt, and manganese could all be utilised again, creating a green electric vehicle battery chain.<\/p>\n The novel technique is called ultrasonic delamination, a process in which ultrasonic waves remove materials from the electrodes, leaving copper or aluminium in their wake, which demonstrated to be extremely efficient at removing lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides (NMC) in addition to graphite. The subsequent materials recovered displayed \u00a0a considerably higher purity than those recovered using conventional electric vehicle battery recycling methods, making them more valuable and possibly suitable for use in new electrodes. Their neoteric strategy is an adaptation of technology commonly used in the food separation industry.<\/p>\n “For the full value of battery technologies to be captured for the UK, we must focus on the entire life cycle \u2013 from the mining of critical materials to battery manufacture to recycling \u2013 to create a circular economy that is both sustainable for the planet and profitable for industry,” commented Professor Pam Thomas, CEO, The Faraday Institution.<\/p>\n “This effort to deliver commercial, societal and environmental impact for the UK is showing great promise. It is imperative that academia, industry, and government redouble their efforts to develop the technological, economic, and legal infrastructure that would allow a UK EV battery recycling industry to become established to realise the full benefits of a decarbonised transport sector.”<\/p>\nPerfecting electric vehicle battery recycling<\/h3>\n