Modern lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles perform better than older lead-acid batteries in all but one area. Even now, lead-acid batteries are the one thing that are recycled the most globally. A sustainable energy transition will be powered by lithium-ion batteries, yet more than 100 million lead-acid batteries are being sold in the US each year, primarily as starter batteries for automobiles, trucks, and boats.
Nearly all of those lead-acid batteries that die are recycled. In actuality, a 99 percent domestic recycling rate is claimed by the lead-acid battery industry. The United States generated about one million metric tons of recycled lead in 2021. Nearly all of that recycled lead was employed in the production of new batteries.
It’s intriguing because none of this is really brand-new. Since the 1920s, lead-acid batteries have been recycled. The industry began to refer to lead used in batteries as a loan rather than as a type of consumption as early as 1930. Hundreds of small-scale lead recycling businesses operated in and around American cities before the 1960s, making this an early instance of urban mining.
Another important source of pollution came from these urban lead recycling operations. In Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1930s, battery recycling companies were blamed for one of the first epidemics of lead poisoning. In some locations, high levels of heavy metals in the soil can still be used to locate the locations of defunct lead-acid battery recycling plants.
However, the industry underwent a significant transformation in the 1980s. Recyclers were required to enhance their pollution controls by new environmental laws. Numerous tiny recyclers shut down as a result. Those operations were combined into integrated battery recycling plants with better environmental controls for those that were still operating. The great majority of used lead-acid batteries in the United States are now recycled at twelve strictly regulated secondary lead smelters.
It is important to consider why lead-acid batteries have been recycled for so long and so effectively, and what lessons that can be used to completing the loop on lithium-ion batteries now that lithium-ion battery manufacturing has surpassed lead-acid battery output globally. Think about these three things:
First, lead-acid batteries have a highly standardized chemical and packaging, which makes recycling easier. The relative consistency of used lead-acid batteries eliminates the need to sort them by chemical, shape, or size, in contrast to lithium-ion batteries, which come in a number of chemistries and shapes (cylindrical, flat, pouch, etc.). This makes mass processing easier.
Second, the metals in lead-acid batteries are virtually exclusively lead oxide paste and metallic lead, both of which are often recycled using pyrometallurgical methods at temperatures above 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Following processing, the recovered lead is cost- and functionally comparable to lead obtained from primary ore.
Lithium-ion batteries, in contrast, are much more physically complicated. To do this, various cathode materials (such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, iron, etc.), anode materials (such as graphite), and conductors must be recovered using customized lithium-ion recycling procedures (aluminum and copper). These difficulties make it difficult to efficiently recover materials and process them for cost-effective reuse.
Third, because lead-acid batteries are very dangerous, the federal government and states started outlawing their disposal in the 1980s. The majority of used lead-acid batteries are recycled domestically, however some are exported abroad for recycling. (Concerns have been expressed regarding the shipment of used batteries to Mexico’s less strictly controlled facilities.) As a result, recycling has been crucial in ensuring that lead has been a plentiful and dependable domestic source in the United States.
The scale of recycling lithium-ion batteries is expected to grow quickly in the future. The economies of scale required to close the loop on lithium-ion batteries promise to be driven by high volumes of used large-format electric car batteries. According to Studies , recycling could potentially cut the total amount of lithium, cobalt, and nickel needed between 2020 and 2050 to electrify the transportation industry by up to 30%.
Enhancing the sustainability of recycling processes will be possible if lithium-ion battery recycling is scaled up. Lithium-ion battery pyrometallurgical techniques now in use frequently only recover a small portion of the metals content of discharged batteries (usually driven by the value of cobalt). Direct recycling techniques, like those being investigated at Argonne National Laboratories ReCell Center , have the potential to significantly improve material recovery while lowering energy inputs and potential contaminants from lithium-ion battery recycling.
The flow of used lithium-ion batteries and the resources they contain might easily be diverted abroad, despite expanding private-sector and governmental attempts to encourage recycling in the United States. Long-term domestic sources of advanced battery materials can be secured with the help of a thriving U.S. lithium-ion recycling business. That is the role the lead recycling industry has played in supporting domestic lead-acid battery manufacturing since the middle of the 20th century, despite the fact that its significance is seldom understood.
This article is based from Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future by James Morton Turner, which will be published soon (August 2022). http://charged-the-book.com has information on Charged for your perusal. Turner tweets as @ jay turner.
Do you value the unique reporting and cleantech news coverage on CleanTechnica? Think about signing up as a patron on Patreon or as a CleanTechnica Member, Supporter, Technician, or Ambassador.
