{"id":215678,"date":"2021-12-23T13:50:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T18:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=215678"},"modified":"2021-12-23T13:50:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T18:50:36","slug":"makers-want-to-re-use-recycle-old-batteries-into-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/12\/makers-want-to-re-use-recycle-old-batteries-into-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Makers Want to Re-Use, Recycle Old Batteries into New"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By mid-decade, Ford Motor Co. plans to produce enough batteries out of three new plants it\u2019s building in Tennessee and Kentucky to power a million vehicles like F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ford
Ford expects to make enough EV batteries to power 1 million vehicles annually.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of the challenges the automaker faces is finding enough of the necessary raw materials, such as lithium, nickel and cobalt for all those battery cells. But another concern is figuring out what to do with those batteries once they reach the end of their life. Simply sending them off to a landfill would create an environmental issue almost on a par with the one that battery-electric vehicles are supposed to solve in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ford thinks it has a way to address both problems in one step. It hopes to close the loop by recycling batteries<\/a><\/span><\/strong> once they\u2019ve reached the end of their life. It recently invested $50 million in a California-based startup, Redwood Materials, which will set up a battery recycling facility at the huge Blue Oval City manufacturing complex Ford is building near Memphis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur partnership with Redwood Materials will be critical to our plan to build electric vehicles at scale in America, at the lowest possible cost and with a zero-waste approach,\u201d said Ford CEO Jim Farley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most batteries today are scrapped<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Ford
Ford and Redwood Materials are working together to build out battery recycling process, making electric vehicles more sustainable.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Detroit automaker isn\u2019t alone. BMW, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volkswagen, the list of manufacturers looking for ways to recycle lithium-ion batteries is growing rapidly. And for good reason \u2014 or reasons, if you prefer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, only a fraction of the batteries used by the auto industry \u2014 or by the consumer electronics industry, for that matter \u2014 are recycled when they reach the end of their life. But demand is expected to grow at an exponential rate. In 2019, BEVs accounted for barely 1% of the total U.S. market<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. It\u2019s now approaching 3% and, according to some forecasts, could top 40 to 50% by 2030. And sales are growing even faster in some markets. All-electric models now account for as much as 70% of Norway\u2019s auto market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, where battery-electric vehicles are seen as a way to reduce air pollution and climate change, automakers must find ways to prevent them from creating a solid waste nightmare. The good news is that recycling their materials could eventually reduce the need for sourcing new materials, with mining linked to a range of its own environmental hazards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"GM
GM signed a strategic supplier agreement with Wolfspeed.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will help us reduce the reliance on importing a lot of the materials that we use today when we build the batteries, and then it\u2019ll reduce the mining of raw materials, which is going to be incredibly important in the future as we start to scale,\u201d said Lisa Drake, Ford\u2019s chief operating officer, agrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recycling ramps up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

General Motors already is working with a Canadian firm, Li-Cycle, to reuse waste from production of its new Ultium batteries. GM just opened a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, with three other U.S. facilities confirmed and yet another expected to follow<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. Company officials recently said they eventually expect to reuse at least 90% of materials like lithium and nickel contained in recycled batteries, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla, meanwhile, has gotten a jump on the competitors pushing into the EV space. It claims on its website that \u201cnone\u201d of its batteries \u201cgo to landfilling, and 100% are recycled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recycling process will gear up slowly, cautioned Sam Abuelsamid, principal auto analyst at Guidehouse Insights. The number of BEVs \u2014 and hybrids \u2014 now on the road is relatively small, and only a modest number will be reaching the end of their life during the next few years. At the same time, demand for batteries will grow rapidly. It\u2019s not likely to reach something of an equilibrium, he told TheDetroitBureau.com, until well into the 2030s and beyond, as the automotive market shifts almost entirely to EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And then, it will take some time for those vehicles to reach the point where it will need to be scrapped. Today, the typical vehicle stays on the road for about a dozen years. With fewer mechanical parts to break down, some analysts believe, BEVs could keep running even longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old batteries could get a “second life” <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, the improvement in battery technology could delay the pace at which batteries ultimately are recycled. Early on, it was widely expected that automotive batteries would reach the end of their useful life in less than 10 years or 100,000 miles. But new chemistries, as well as techniques used to reduce their wear, have proved surprisingly effective. Abuelsamid and other analysts note that some new batteries could last 350,000 miles and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has talked about next-gen technology that would go for as much as 1 million miles. Doug Parks, GM’s executive vice president, Global Vehicle Development, said the company wasn’t far behind Tesla on that target<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By then, most vehicles would be ready for recycling themselves. But for many batteries, that might just mark what French automaker Renault calls \u201csecond life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Volvo
The Volvo XC40 Recharge Battery Package is just the first of what will be a variety of vehicles using batteries.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile a battery’s first life lasts for between 10-15 years, it still has a capacity of at least 75%. This means it can be repurposed for up to another 10 years in applications such as stationary energy storage,\u201d it said on its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping level the load<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Several pilot programs are already underway that are using post-vehicle batteries in a variety of ways. Among other things, this could include battery \u201cfarms\u201d to back up renewable sources \u2014 keeping power flowing from solar facilities when the sun goes down, or when wind turbines are becalmed. And, on a local scale, a handful of second-life battery packs could be stationed in neighborhoods to provide power during blackouts and brownouts<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, GM and Nissan have been doing just that sort of things since 2015. A study released earlier this year by the Boston Consulting Group forecast that by 2030 as much as 30% of the high-voltage automotive batteries will find \u201csecond life\u201d applications once the vehicle is scrapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose batteries will become sought after\u201d for a variety of applications, said Scott Hinson, the CEO of Pecan Street, an Austin, Texas-based energy research project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ford recently revealed plans to recycle its EV batteries at the end of their lifecycle. However, the company’s not alone in this effort as scores of others are on the same path. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,10,9],"tags":[4139,1810,665,2774,4138],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215678"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215734,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215678\/revisions\/215734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215678"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=215678"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=215678"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=215678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}