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DOE to award $2M to 8 projects to enhance domestic advancements in Li-ion battery recycling and remanufacturing

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:

  1. Development of Room Temperature Process for Recycling and Reuse of Electrodes

  2. 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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Lead /
Partner
Project Award
ORNL/
Austin Elements
Isolation and conversion of electrolyte components into a value-added products. Austin Elements and ORNL will utilize the ORNL expertise to recycle electrolyte from end-of-life batteries. The goal of the project is to reduce environmental hazards, understand the fundamental differences between pristine and recycled electrolyte components, and effectively separate value-added products, such as glycol and LiF. $250,000
Idaho National Laboratory/
American Battery Technology Company
Dimethyl ether-driven extraction of electrolyte and solid electrolyte interphase from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) will develop and advance new methods to extract valuable, currently unrecovered electrolyte components. The goal of the project is to develop environmentally conscious methods to remove electrolyte from end-of-life LIBs and recover intact electrolyte components including organic solvents and inorganic lithium salts. $250,000
INL/
Koura Global
Recovery and rejuvenation of f-containing salts from li-ion batteries. INL and Koura Global will advance new methods to upcycle extracted electrolyte components. The goal of the project is to develop methods for recovering, classifying, quantifying, and upcycling electrolyte components through a combination of extraction and synthetic routes. $250,000