Chapter 9. The Recycling of Lithium-ion Batteries: Current and Potential Approaches

Abstract

The rapid uptake of lithium-ion batteries in recent years has received additional impetus from the expansion of the electric vehicle market and their usage within this high growth sector. The expansion of this demand is in turn fuelling end-of-life treatment approaches upon eventual redundancy. This chapter explores the legislative and cost demands acting as drivers to these requirements. The chapter explores the approaches being adopted in relation to a waste treatment hierarchy favouring the consignment of end-of-life batteries to a recycling scenario which, whilst currently based on pyrometallurgy, is seeking to embrace less environmentally impacting approaches based upon hydrometallurgy.