I-Corps: Machine for Decentralized Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种机器，旨在以经济可行的方式解决锂离子电池的回收需求，从而在许多方面直接造福社会。它减少了对环境的影响以及可能因填埋这些电池而对人类和野生动物造成的相关健康风险。如果锂离子电池被填埋，社会将会遇到土地和水的污染以及填埋电池的火灾和爆炸等环境问题。它还减少了从矿山中提取锂和钴等稀有元素的需求，为下一代节省了矿山。最后，它提高了美国的国家安全，因为回收可以使锂离子电池的主要元素或材料保持在美国制造的闭环中，减少了美国对从其他国家进口这些元素或材料的依赖。该项目将为美国的劳工和工程师创造新的就业机会，并为残疾人提供就业机会，因为过程/机器可以自动化。与目前在锂离子电池回收方面处于领先地位的中国和欧洲相比，这项工作将提高美国的经济竞争力。这个I-Corps项目是基于我们两项基础研究活动开发的回收机，一项是有效分离电极材料和集流器，另一项是有效分离阳极和阴极活性材料。关键是分离过程不会对正极和负极活性材料的形态和成分造成任何破坏，从而使分离后的材料可以直接再生并返回到电池制造过程中。这增加了从拟议的机器中获得的回收材料的利润。这两个关键的分离过程使我们能够(1)提供一个潜在的小型机器来回收锂离子电池，(2)用一台机器回收不同化学成分和制造商的所有类型的锂离子电池。但是，机器的运行参数应根据不同类型的电池进行调整。这台机器的一些价值主张是：(1)它可以在任何地点快速部署；(2)它降低了废锂离子电池的运输、处理和储存成本；(3)它提高了回收效率；(4)它从废锂离子电池中产生了更多有价值的产出。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a machine designed to address the lithium-ion batteries recycling needs in an economically feasible way so that it directly benefits the society in numerous ways. It reduces the environmental impacts and the associate health risk for human and wildlife that may be caused due to landfilling these batteries. If lithium-ion batteries are landfilled, society will encounter environmental issues such as land and water contaminations and fire and explosion of landfilled batteries. It also reduces the needs to extract rare elements such as lithium and cobalt from mines to save the mines for next generations. Lastly, it improves the United States’ national security because recycling can keep the major elements or materials of lithium-ion batteries in the closed-loop of manufacturing in the country and reduces the dependency of the United States to import these elements or materials from other countries. This project will generate new jobs for labors and engineers in the United States and opens job opportunities for persons with disabilities since the process/machine can be automated. This work will increase the economic competitiveness of the United States compared to China and Europe, which are currently the pioneer in recycling lithium-ion batteries.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a recycling machine based on our two fundamental research activities, one for effective separation of electrode materials from current collectors, and one for efficient separation of anode and cathode active materials from each other. The key point is that the separations are performed without causing any damage to the morphology and composition of the anode and cathode active materials so that the separated materials can be directly regenerated and returned to the battery manufacturing process. This increases the profit from the obtained recycled materials from the proposed machine. These two key separation processes enable us to (1) offer a potentially small machine for recycling lithium-ion batteries, and (2) recycle all types of lithium-ion batteries with different chemistries and manufacturers with one machine. However, the machine operating parameters should be adjusted for each type of battery. Some of the value propositions of this machine are (1) it can be deployed fast in any location, (2) it reduces the cost of spent lithium-ion batteries transportation, handling and storage, (3) it improves the recycling efficiency, and (4) it produces more valuable outputs from spent lithium-ion batteries.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.