What factors affect the economics of a batteries first life?

One of the key factors that will affect the economics of operations at the end of a batteries first life is the time and labour taken to gateway test and sort modules.

Are lithium-ion batteries a circular economy?

The market dynamics, and their impact on a future circular economy for lithium-ion batteries (LIB), are presented in this roadmap, with safety as an integral consideration throughout the life cycle. At the point of end-of-life (EOL), there is a range of potential options—remanufacturing, reuse and recycling.

What is a flow cell battery?

This development follows two main routes: first using a similar architecture to LIBs but with different chemistry such as sodium ion batteries ; and flow cell batteries which contain the electrolyte in a separate tank and utilise a range of chemistries from vanadium to zinc bromide to lead-based systems .

Are EV batteries a circular economy?

Several converging long-term trends make a circular economy for EV batteries ever more challenging—the price of new batteries is falling, changes in formulation mean that future batteries contain a materials inventory with an ever decreasing value and so the margin for recyclers is under pressure.

What is the future of battery recycling?

The 2019/2020 EU Battery Regulation addresses this with minimum recycling efficiencies increasing from 50% to 65% by 2025 and 70% by 2030. Declarations of levels of recycled content in new LIBs is another factor included [11, 120].

What happens if a battery is recycled?

Unless using a feedstock of production scrap, the cathode materials entering the recycling process are likely to originate from cycled batteries that have undergone a certain degree of capacity fade, and hence been subject to degradation .