Pre-Recycling Material Analysis of NMC Lithium-Ion Battery Cells from Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Environmental concerns push for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and technologies with a low carbon footprint. In the transportation sector, this drives the transition toward electric vehicles (EVs), which are nowadays mainly based on lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). As the number of produced EVs is rapidly growing, a large amount of waste batteries is expected in the future. Recycling seems to be one of the most promising end-of-life (EOL) methods; it reduces raw material consumption in battery production and the environmental burden. Thus, this work introduces a comprehensive pre-recycling material characterization of waste nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) LIB cells from a fully electric battery electric vehicle (BEV), which represents a basis for cost-effective and environmentally friendly recycling focusing on the efficiency of the implemented technique. The composition of the NCM 622 battery cell was determined; it included a LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 spinel on a 15 μm Al-based current collector (cathode), a graphite layer on 60 μm copper foil (anode), 25 μm PE/PVDF polymer separator, and a LiPF6 salt electrolyte with a 1:3 ratio in primary solvents DMC and DEC. The performed research was based on a series of X-ray, infrared (IR) measurements, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) characterization of an aqueous solution with dissolved electrolytes. These results will be used in subsequent works devoted to optimizing the most suitable recycling technique considering the environmental and economic perspectives.

Global Patent Analysis of Battery Recycling Technologies: A Comparative Study of Korea, China, and the United States

“…Even though there are many academic articles about battery recycling, it is hard to find articles that are about battery recycling patent analysis because most articles focused on material technology [23][24][25] or the overall system and process of battery recycling [26,27].…”

Global Patent Analysis of Battery Recycling Technologies: A Comparative Study of Korea, China, and the United States

“…Even though there are many academic articles about battery recycling, it is hard to find articles that are about battery recycling patent analysis because most of articles focused on material technology [21][22][23] or overall system and process of battery recycling [24][25][26][27].…”

Selected Metal Materials in Automotive Electrical Engineering—A Brief Overview of the State of the Art

“…The most frequently used LIBs installed in electric vehicles are made from battery cells consisting of nickel manganese cobalt mixed oxide (nickel-manganese-cobalt NMC) [122] as cathode active material and graphite as anode active material [123]. More than half of the cell volume of nearly 200 GWh installed in the first half of 2022 was based on the NMC technology.…”