Lithium Battery Deactivation/Render Safe

This project, Lithium Battery Deactivation/Render Safe, will develop and demonstrate technology to transform live or damaged batteries into inert items on an mobile-pilot scale suitable to process batteries in a relevant environment.  The project will build upon successful developmental work supported through EERE DE-EE0008475 “Elimination of Class-9 Hazards in Lithium-ion Recycling”, and the DLA Phase II project which demonstrated Technical Readiness Level 6 capability in-house at OnTo Technology, LLC for the treatment and validation of battery deactivation from Seattle Transit Bus batteries, Nissan Leaf electric vehicles (EVs), Ford C-Max EV, Ultima-related EV batteries, a crashed Tesla battery, internet technology applications, and defense-application batteries. OnTo’s successful Phase II Made-in-America Battery Recycling Prize demonstrated technical validation of elimination of self-heating in accelerated rate calorimetry testing through Sandia National Laboratory. Technical Approach: The project will (1) construct and demonstrate a mobile deactivation processor based upon OnTo’s patented deactivation technology for use on electric vehicle and energy storage end-of-life batteries and (2) develop process control, personnel training programs, and mobility features to improve the battery deactivation technical readiness level (TRL7).