REcycling of spent Li-ion batteries and end-life photovoltaic panels: From the development of metal recovery processes to the implementation of a START-up – RESTART

Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are becoming the state-of-the art energy storage technology for the future, and they are increasingly applied in the automotive industry as well as for renewable energy storage. The global Li-ion battery market size, considering only Electrical Vehicles applications, is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 25.3% from USD 27.3 billion in 2021 to USD 67.2 billion by 2025.1 Simultaneously, there has been continuous growth since 2000s in the integration of renewable energy sources, such as huge production of photovoltaic (PV) modules; the total cumulative installed capacity reached 627 GW in 20192. These emerging technologies will result in two major issues in the future:
- Supply issue: Growing need of critical materials (Co, Si, Ni, Al, Li, Mn)
- Environmental issue: Wasted LiBs and PV panels (considered as hazardous waste) contain also harmful components which harm health and water resources, even provoke spontaneous fires.
The main objective of RESTART Project is to implement a full value chain for recycling End-of-Life (EoL) LiBs and PV, shifting from linear economy to circular economy, thus reducing waste disposal as well as minimizing dependence on important primary materials. Major aspects will be covered:
• Collection, disassembling and characterization of EoL LiBs and PV
• Technology Development and scale-up of metals recovery processes
• Demonstration of fresh Batteries build-up from recovered chemical elements
• Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment
• Economy Business Plan based on the best cost performing recycling processes
• Dissemination of the Project’s outreaches for identification of key stakeholders
• Implementation of a Start-up
The outcomes of RESTART on the creation of jobs (through dedicated capacity building and innovation) and implementation of real circular economy will serve as a model for the numerous African Countries through the large scientific and economic existing partnership. RESTART implements an interdisciplinary approach facilitated by its consortium that brings complementary expertise from top-level research institutions in EU and Africa to cover the entire recycling value chain. It will strictly comply with all national, AU and EU legislations on the matters of privacy and data protection. Any Intellectual Property generated in this project will be governed by the IPR rules described in the final Consortium Agreement. RESTART project, involving 7 females/20 members, will address the need for gender equality in its capacity building and peer-to-peer-exchange, to ensure that women are represented and involved in all aspects of the project. The methodology consists of:
• The screening and development of advanced and innovative solutions for spent PV and battery processing (WP2, UM6P-UCA).
• The characterization of the speciation of the used metals to select the appropriate recovery strategy (WP1, CEREGE & Aalto).
•Thermoelectric materials and fresh batteries will be developed starting from recovered metals. Their performance will be compared with commercial batteries (WP3, UCA-KSIU).
•Strategy for reactor design and upscaling will be developed for the most efficient process (WP4, UM6P) combining the techno-commercial assessment (UBB, WP5). Life cycle assessment and handling processes will be completed (Aalto, WP6).
• Development of a detailed business model from the e-wastes collection to the valorization of the final products. The implementation of a Start-up in GEP will serve as a model for the African countries (WP7, GEP).
Note that UCA-UM6P-GEP-CEREGE with the support of EMOB enterprise providing their EoL LiBs, already started to initiate RESTART project through the co-supervision of a PhD student (UCA-UM6P-CEREGE) with a scholarship funded by GEP. The first steps consisting of battery collection, disassembling, separation of the components and their analysis were performed in accordance with the RESTART’s methodology. EoL LiBs from EMOB are currently recycled