Post-Electric Vehicle (EV) lithium-ion batteries repurposing, remanufacturing, and recycling

在这项可行性研究中，研究重点是后电动汽车(EV)锂离子电池的再利用、再制造和回收。随着混合动力汽车和电动汽车的应用越来越多，预计在未来十年内，进入回收工厂的废旧电池数量将呈指数级增长。这些电池的能量保持能力通常会随着老化而下降。如果能量保持低于其额定容量的80%，则不再适合用于车辆推进应用，需要更换。然而，通过再制造和再利用，它们可以保持在使用周期中。重新制造或翻新的努力是识别出故障的电池，并用健康的电池取代它们，而重新定位寻求识别其他有趣的应用，如照明和能源电网存储。如果所有这些都不是可行的选择，那么应该考虑回收电池中包含的贵重材料，如稀土金属。为了使上述任何处理方法成为可行的商业实践，必须在彻底的成本和收益分析的基础上开发有效的工艺。预计该项目将探索不同的流程，并根据生产率、健康和安全、环境影响以及标准和法规等重要因素提出最佳方法。一旦确定了每种处理方法，下一步将是详细说明在回收工厂建立试点生产线的过程。

In this feasibility study, the research is focused on post-Electric Vehicle (EV) lithium-ion batteries repurposing,remanufacturing, and recycling. As the application of hybrid and electric vehicles is on the rise, it is expectedthat the number of used batteries that will end up in recycling plants will grow exponentially within the nextdecades.Energy retention of these batteries is usually degraded as they have aged. If the energy retention falls under80% of their nominal capacity they are no longer ideal to be used for vehicle propulsion applications and needto be replaced. However, through remanufacturing and repurposing, they can be kept in the cycle of use. Theefforts for remanufacturing or refurbishing are to identify the malfunctioning cells and to replace them withhealthy ones, and repurposing seeks to identify other interesting applications, such as lighting and energy gridstorage. If none of these are viable options then recycling should be considered to recover the preciousmaterials contained within the batteries, such as rare earth metals.In order to make any of above-mentioned treatments a viable business practice, an efficient process must bedeveloped based on a thorough cost and benefit analysis. It is expected that this project will explore differentprocesses and suggest the best approach based on important factors such as productivity, health and safety,environmental impacts, and standards and regulations. Once the approach is identified for each treatment, thenext step will be to detail the process for establishing a pilot production line in recycling plants.