DOE to award $2M to 8 projects to enhance domestic advancements in Li-ion battery recycling and remanufacturing
29 September 2023
The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award a combined total of $2 million to eight projects to drive innovation in lithium-ion battery (LIB) rejuvenation, recycling, and reuse administered through the ReCell Center. The ReCell Centerwas established by DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office and is located at Argonne National Laboratory.
These projects are funded by DOE’s Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), which will form Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) between the National Laboratories that are part of the ReCell Center and industry partners to perform research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects. These CRADA projects require a 50% cost share between DOE and private partners.
Envisioning a clean energy future powered by LIBs, AMMTO collaborates with DOE National Laboratories, including Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
The selected projects were chosen from two topic areas:
Development of Room Temperature Process for Recycling and Reuse of Electrodes
Recycling of Electrolytes
Development of Room Temperature Process for Recycling and Reuse of Electrodes
| Lead / Partner |
Project | Award |
| Argonne National Laboratory/ Cirba Solutions |
Lithium recovery from process solutions. Argonne has developed technologies to recover lithium from solution and will work with Cirba Solutions to recover lithium from their commercial LIB recycling processes. The goal of the project is to cost-effectively turn the recovered lithium into a battery grade product that can be returned to the battery supply chain. | $250,000 |
| ANL/ LiIndustries |
Improving processes for directly recycling lithium iron phosphate batteries Li Industries Inc. has established methods for sorting and recycling batteries to achieve high quality LIBs feedstocks to directly produce battery-grade lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Working with Argonne, the goal of the project is to further develop cost-effective processes to directly recycle LFP LIBs through sorting, separation, and regeneration. | $250,000 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory/ Nth Cycle |
Cost competitive process of battery-grade oxides preparation from aged LIBs. Nth Cycle and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will work to precipitate metal hydroxides selectively from aged cathode materials using a novel electro-extraction method. This method is based on the use of flow-through porous electrodes and sequential electro-extractions. The goal of the project will be to recover metal hydroxide precipitates and be evaluated as precursor cathode active materials (pCAM) for use in manufacturing LIBs. | $250,000 |
| National Renewable Energy Laboratory/ Koura Global |
Upcycling for re-manufacturability: morphological engineering of graphite for high-rate performance. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Koura Global will repair and upgrade the morphology of first-generation spent graphite to meet modern performance requirements. The goal of the project is to produce “upcycled” graphite that is a viable alternative to pristine graphite by optimizing mechanical and mechano-chemical approaches. | / $250,000 |
| NREL/ Storagenergy Technologies |
Atmospheric plasma for cathode re-lithiation and upcycling. NREL and Storagenergy Technologies Inc. will use a one-step atmospheric microplasma reaction to remove electrolyte degradation products and relithiate end-of-life cathode materials. The goal of the project is to reduce the number of steps and time necessary for the direct recycling of battery components. | $250,000 |
Recycling of Electrolytes
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