Today, we want to talk to you about used car batteries.

Experts say that by 2030 we can have 1.5 million tons of cells from the batteries of electric cars after the period of operation. Collected batteries are sorted to identify those that are reusable and those that need to be recycled.

In order to recycle used lithium batteries, it is first necessary to disassemble them into their components and then shred them, which leads to the formation of a “black mass”. There are various chemical processes that enable the recovery of raw materials from this substance. However, until now these processes have been very energy intensive and generated large amounts of salt that needed to be disposed of. In addition, the amount of raw materials that can be recovered in this way is still small.

The recovered lead can be used to make new batteries, and the copper can be used to make cables and other electrical devices. It should be remembered that recycling reduces the carbon footprint of metals used in the production of batteries by at least 25% compared to obtaining them from natural deposits.