The Growing Need for Battery Recycling Innovation | By Innovate UK KTN.
OPINION | Electric Vehicles are the transport of the future, but with limited supply of raw materials to make EV batteries, the UK needs to become a batter-recycling superpower to secure its supply. Sheena Hindocha and Nikoleta Piperidou, Knowledge Transfer Managers at Innovate UK KTN, and co-authors of the ‘The 2035 UK Battery Recycling Industry Vision’, discuss the opportunity battery recycling offers the UK and what’s needed to help the solution become a reality.
It’s no secret that the Government is fully behind the rollout of electric transport to help reach its net-zero target by 2050. Transport contributes a substantial amount to the UK’s carbon footprint, accounting for a staggering 34% of all carbon emissions within the UK in 2022. With this in mind, the UK government is keen to accelerate alternative transport that can significantly reduce the sector’s carbon emissions.
As we all know, the electrification of transport remains the most feasible technology capable of being fully integrated into the UK’s infrastructure in the coming decades. The UK’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution highlights this shift in dependency, stating that all new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from sale within the UK by 2030, with hybrids phased out by 2035. From that point on, the only new car that will be allowed sale within the UK will be electric. The challenge, however, will be in powering these vehicles.
The raw materials required to make EV batteries – rare minerals lithium and cobalt – are in limited supply. Nations across the globe are all competing for access to these critical minerals and with over 1.6 million EVs expected to be produced per annum by 2040, securing these minerals will be the UK’s top priority. As such, the UK’s Critical Mineral Strategy, published in 2022, identifies lithium and cobalt as highly critical to the UK.
Considering the rarity of raw battery materials, the recycling of automotive batteries will become an enormous global industry. Without any lithium or cobalt mines of our own, battery recycling is the UK’s best option for securing supply, so what’s holding us back?
Well, recycling EV batteries presents significant challenges. The first and most important challenge is its economic value. Currently, the only material worth extracting from an expired battery is cobalt, leaving lithium, magnesium, and nickel without a means to be recycled that doesn’t require additional processing, leading to higher costs in extraction.
The other challenge is the consequent emissions produced during the process. The two main methods of recycling batteries either involve extreme temperatures or acid, which are both carbon-intensive processes that create toxic waste which could end up in the environment. Not only this, but the transportation of these batteries is expensive and also adds further carbon costs to the entire recycling process, with little infrastructure to support the expansion of the industry.
A significant part of the problem is that no two EV batteries are the same. Different cell manufacturers use different designs, making the automation of EV battery recycling impossible.
With clear incentives, technologies and solutions in place, battery recycling could become a reality for the UK. But, to achieve this, substantial work must be completed within the following areas:
Research and Innovation
There is a huge opportunity for the UK to pioneer new approaches to battery recycling, particularly in the chemical and physical separation of materials, to improve its sustainability.
There is also the consideration of new, cheaper technologies currently being adopted by big players, such as Tesla, which has been utilising Lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. This trend towards cheaper battery chemistries has significantly reduced the cost of producing EVs but, as a result, has meant the cost of recycling these technologies currently outweighs their material value. With the Government keen to expedite the UK’s transition to EVs, innovation in this space could be crucial if this technology continues to be used by some of the most popular electric car brands.
There is also the need for improved battery management systems. Currently, there is limited insight we can gather from State of Health (SoH) systems to indicate whether a battery needs to be recycled, reused or can be repurposed for another application. It goes without saying that one battery could house tens, if not hundreds of cells, and standard SoH testing can’t accurately measure each cell within a battery. It is clear, therefore, that new developments within this field are needed to help provide heightened insight into a battery’s health and potential use.
Policy
For the UK to become a leader in battery recycling, effective policy must also be integrated alongside new processes. The introduction of regulations which support the handling, dismantling, repair, repurposing and recycling of batteries at the end of their first life is paramount in ensuring the sector can grow.
The current cost of recycled materials, for example, is simply too expensive when compared to the price of new raw materials. With regulations in place, battery manufacturers could have minimum target levels of recycled content they must meet. Interestingly, the EU is already developing a regulatory framework for this; the UK will have to follow suit to not only encourage the recycling of battery materials, but also to ensure UK products remain viable for the EU market.
There is also a need for improved tracking of the batteries and their components to better understand and measure their environmental impact. The Global Battery Alliance is already working towards this, looking to implement a battery passport system to better track the sourcing and use of raw materials. This, however, is currently just a proof of concept and will require international industry collaboration to succeed.
Infrastructure
Lastly, the UK needs grounded infrastructure to support large-scale battery recycling. With more and more EVs soon to hit UK roads, the number of end-of-life batteries will increase exponentially, and the UK must be ready to accommodate. If slow to respond, the volume of waste could seriously overwhelm the UK’s existing recycling infrastructure, leading to costly international shipping of UK EV waste.
To support this increased demand, the UK Government must support the growth of innovative SMEs to pilot and demonstrate their recycling technologies at a scale which could then unlock further investment. Access to facilities within the UK, such as universities or utilising the Catapult Network, could provide SMEs with the data needed to better understand the economic impact of new recycling technologies and their real-world feasibility.
Alongside this, there would also need for heightened investment in the industry to support the rapid expansion of the UK’s recycling facilities. Regional collection points could significantly reduce the high transportation costs of batteries and make the process much more financially viable. Not only this, but the handling and disposal of end-of-life requires robust processing facilities and a newly trained workforce to ensure the successful integration of battery recycling.
Battery recycling is an exciting opportunity for the UK. With EVs soon to dominate roads across the world, the UK could prime itself to be a world leader in battery recycling. With raw materials becoming increasingly costly, looming net-zero targets and the upcoming ban on new petrol and diesel cars draws, the UK’s ability to respond in the coming years will be crucial to its success.
To find out about more about what battery recycling could offer the UK, as well as news, funding and collaboration opportunities, visit the UK Batteries Network where ‘The 2035 UK Battery Recycling Industry Vision’ will be published imminently.
This opinion piece was co-authored by Sheena Hindocha & Nikoleta Piperidou, Knowledge Transfer Managers, Innovate UK KTN.
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