End of Electric Vehicle Batteries: Reuse vs. Recycle

• Published in: Energies
• Main Authors: Yash Kotak, Carlos Marchante Fernández, Lluc Canals Casals, Bhavya Satishbhai Kotak, Daniel Koch, Christian Geisbauer, Lluís Trilla, Alberto Gómez-Núñez, Hans-Georg Schweiger
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Subjects: battery recycling; battery reuse; battery second life; circular economy; lithium-ion cells; electric vehicles
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/8/2217

It is a fact that electric vehicles (EVs) are beneficial for climate protection. However, the current challenge is to decide on whether to reuse an EV battery or to recycle it after its first use. This paper theoretically investigates these areas i.e., recycle and reuse. It was found that there are several commercially used recycling processes and also some are under research to regain maximum possible materials and quantity. The concept of reusing (second life) of the battery is promising because, at the end of the first life, batteries from EVs can be used in several applications such as storing energy generated from renewable sources to support the government grid. However, the cost and life-cycle analysis (LCA) demonstrated that there are several aspects involved in battery reuse applications. Henceforth, one LCA generalised method cannot provide an optimal approach for all cases. It is important to have a detailed study on each of the battery reusing applications. Until then, it is safe to say that reusing the battery is a good option as it would give some time to recycling companies to develop cost and energy-efficient methods.