Emerging Trends and Future Opportunities for Battery Recycling

The global lithium-ion battery recycling capacity needs to increase by a factor of 50 in the next decade to meet the projected adoption of electric vehicles. During this expansion of recycling capacity, it is unclear which technologies are most appropriate to reduce costs and environmental impacts. Here, we describe the current and future recycling capacity situation and summarize methods for quantifying costs and environmental impacts of battery recycling methods with a focus on cathode active materials. Second use, electrification of pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy, direct recycling, and electrochemical recycling methods are discussed as leading-edge methods for overcoming state of the art battery recycling challenges. The paper ends with a discussion of future issues and considerations regarding solid-state batteries and co-optimization of battery design for recycling.