Battery Recycling OverviewKeynote Address2021 MPSC Battery Recycling Symposium

Renata Arsenault

Research and Advanced Engineering

Ford Motor Company

1

Outline

• A Changing World

• Why Recycle?

• Recycling Technology Overview

• Industry-Specific Challenges and Opportunities

2

Technology Curve Tipping Point

Supply Chain

New business

Models

Computing

Charging

Infrastructure

Renewables

AVs CE

Volumes

Costs

TE

CH

NO

LO

GY

CO

NV

ER

GE

NC

E

The battery’s

central role in

disruption

3

Soaring Demands for Cells, Rising Gigafactories and Battery Materials

Lithium-Ion battery manufacturing asset map

Fully Commissioned Under construction AnnouncedAutomotive industry is

the primary driver

Source: BNEF 4

Global Trade Flows and Battery Recycling Logistics

Without proper planning, there

could be short-term bottlenecks

in the supplies of some metals

needed for lithium-ion battery

production. This map shows

today’s trade flows of key

ingredients for battery

production, with exports from

each country shown in red and

imports in green.

Courtesy of the researchers

Will metal supplies limit

battery expansion?

Rise of electric vehicles and grid

storage may cause bottlenecks,

but no showstoppers, analysis

suggests.David L. Chandler | MIT News

Office

October 11, 2017

5

Current State: Depicted above

Ideal State: Localization of recycling…

and battery and raw material manufacturing

End-of-Life Battery and Manufacturing Scrap Projections

• > 3M tons EOL Li-Ion batteries by 2030

• Majority of volume from large format LIB

– Recycling mix today: 97% small format*

– Recycling mix 2030: 90% large format*

• Includes ~2-300 k tonnes battery

manufacturing scrap

• China volumes >> ROW, aggressive

expansion plans in Europe

• Recent trends favor local supply chains

and ramp-up of domestic recycling

Graphs Courtesy of Li-Cycle, 2020 6

>15 million tonnes

of LIB requiring

recycling by 2030

(cumulative)

Steadily increasing portion of

batteries requiring recycling

will be large format

Total Lithium-Ion Batteries Available for Recycling by Application/Sector (tonnes/year)

* BloombergNEF Jan. 2019 report:

Li-Ion Recycling: 2 Million tons by 2030

Total Lithium-Ion Batteries Available for Recycling by Region (tonnes/year)

Why Recycle?

• Product stewardship

• Protect people and the environment

• C-neutrality (corporate sustainability values)

• Source of conflict-free mineral provenance

• Regulatory compliance

• Sticks and carrots

• Secure critical materials for

supply chains under increasing pressure

• Supply chain circularity – critical link

• Energy security and national security

• Economics!

7

Battery Recycling Technology (Primer)

Process Categories and their Pros and Cons

Simple Separation Pyrometallurgical Hydrometallurgical Direct Recycling

Simple recovery of low value byproducts for down stream use

Breaks compounds down to elements. Further processing req’d

Breaks recovered material down to smaller building blocks

Secondary AM particles kept intact; surface purified and mat’l relithiated

• No (minimal) sorting• Accommodates mixed,

variable process feed • Low cost process• Resultant black mass easy,

cheap and safe to transport• Salable (indexed to LME)

• Very flexible• Simple, mature process• No sorting (within chemistry)• Accommodates diverse feed• Needs high price of Co and Ni• Favors high volume• Focuses on Co, Ni, Cu value• High purity product

• Flexible• No (minimal) sorting• Accommodates mixed

process feed • IN/OUT NMC ratios can differ• ~95% feed recoverable by wt• Can produce metal sulfates,

precursors or cathode

• Low fugitive emissions claims• May be good fit for

manufacturing scrap• Simple and low-cost process in

theory

• Low value product (example)

• Needs further refining

• Alloy requires processing to convert to battery materials

• Li cost to recover• CO2 generation• Permitting of new facilities• Costly treatment to avoid PFAS• ~ 50 % feed recoverable by wt

• Impurity removal challenges• Some sorting required for

most hydro processes

• Results to date all lab-scale• Sorting required• Impurity removal challenges• Likely to be inferior quality• IN=OUT chemistry limitation• Recovered material may still

need surface treatment

Low cost process, low value product: BLACK MASS

High purity, flexible, moderate value end product

Can generate basic building blocks, precursor or cathode

Promising economics but technically challenging and not flexible

PR

OS

CO

NS

8

Steps and Logistics of Battery Recycling

Form of recovered

materials varies according

to process design

9

Logistics Costs:

• Collection

• Storage

• Transport (multiple)

• Dismantling

Up to ~50% of total!

an example only…many variations exist

Regional Differences

Data source: BloombergNEF

US Europe Asia

Regional variations

$/ton

REGIONAL

DIFFERENCES:

• Transport. costs

• Labor costs

• Energy costs

• Material costs

• ESG factors

• Regulations

10

(

Regional Differences Favor Different Models

distributedcentralized decentralized

$

11

Many Business Models Possible…

12

EV

usersPack

Dismantling

Cathode

precursors

Battery

mfg.EV OEM

Metal

supply

Cathode

material

suppliers

Pack

Removal

TR

IAG

E

EV OEM

Indicate various

levels of

processing prior

to battery

manufacturing

REMAN

RE

PU

RP

OS

EBlack mass

Al, Fe, CuModule/Cell z

LiB Value Chain: Recycler Output Determines Downstream Customer

zMn

Co

Ni

Li

Conversion to

‘Black Mass’,

alloy or matte

Conversion to

lithium and metal

sulfates

Precursor/Cathode

manufacturing

Cell

manufacturing

Re

lativ

e

va

lue

bla

ck m

ass

or a

lloy

sulfa

tes,

lithiu

m

cath

od

e

Recycling

processes

have

different

outputsBlack mass or alloy

Metal sulfates, lithium compounds

Value added materials (precursor and cathode)

13

(

The Ideal State and the Challenges to Achieve It

IDEAL STATE

• Cost positive recycling (recovered value > collection, logistics and recycling costs)

• Intrinsic value drives collection

• Standard chemistry, standard formats (consistency)

• High volume

• Supply chain security and domestic circularity

FACTORS THAT INTRODUCE CHALLENGES

• Cost to recycle (requires measures to force or incentivize collection)

• Diverse chemistry or form factor

• Processes that require sorting

• Low volume

• Difficult dismantling

• Large size (specialized equipment needed)

• Lack of information (chemistry, SOH, shipping details etc.)

• High logistics costs (classification, distance, regional challenges) 14

Most of these will be MORE challenging for

DOD/military applications and may drive different optimal

solutions than those forautomotive.

Automotive vs Military

15

Battery removal

/ collection Transport

Storage

Dismantling

Discharge

DE

FE

NS

E /

MIL

ITA

RY

Transport Transport Transport

ADDED CONSIDERATIONS / CHALLENGES AT EACH STAGE RELATIVE TO AUTOMOTIVE

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• Render safe

and easy to

transport

• Convert to alloy

or black mass?

• Maintain

ownership?

• Available

recycling?

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Pyro

ShreddingHydro process

battery materialsCell

production

15

Enablers for a Sustainable and Efficient Recycling Ecosystem

sustainability

ba

ttery

size

16

17