Recovery of High Value Anode Materials for a Fully Closed Loop Li-ion Battery Recycling Process

Battery Resourcers’ goal with this Small Business Innovative Research Phase 1 project is to produce high quality and high purity graphite generated from its Li-ion battery recycling technology. This will lead to low cost anode materials for Electric Vehicle batteries and push the battery cost towards DOE’s goal of $100/kWh. Battery Resourcers’ technology recovers cathode material from a broad spectrum of Li-ion battery regardless of size, shape or chemistry. In Battery Resourcers existing model, the graphite is recovered to be used as a reductant. However, in this application the value is low and therefore the battery materials cost or recycling cost is not lowered by the recovery of the graphite Battery Resourcers and its subcontractor WPI intend to demonstrate the same success with the recovered graphite for anode materials. By selling high quality graphite and NMC powder to battery manufacturers, it will drastically lower the overall battery cost. This advancement is critical because traditional recycling processes only recover individual metals from the batteries, and graphite is simply burned. The success of this award will enable Battery Resourcers offer lowest cost anode materials while reducing the carbon footprint of the battery industry. This will potentially lower the cost of EV by lowering the upfront cost of the battery and the end of life disposal costs. The technical objectives of this Phase 1 research project are to purify the recovered graphite from Battery Resourcers leaching process and demonstrate it is viable to be used in new electric vehicle lithium ion batteries. The graphite in Battery Resourcers recovery process contains Co, Ni, Mn, and Al2O3. To separate the graphite from other materials we will employ new filtering techniques and chemical processing methods. Secondly, Battery Resourcers will develop a technology such that the anode material can be used in new batteries. If the process can be improved such that the anode material can be used in new batteries than the value recovered is such more. When successful this technology can be directly piloted on Battery Resourcers existing pilot plant for a phase II project.