The increased recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries, found in everything from electric vehicles to energy storage systems to smartphones, has posed some problems.
While a significant issue is getting people to properly recycle these batteries rather than tossing them out in the garbage, where they are known to catch fire in garbage trucks often, even the act of recycling itself presents dilemmas. Among the most pressing issues is that the currently used recycling methods pose a risk to the environment and require a significant amount of energy.
However, according to a writeup from the National Research Council of Science and Technology in TechXplore, a research team from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources has developed a more environmentally-friendly way to recycle these batteries, which not only enables a circular battery ecosystem but also lays the groundwork for a future closed-loop battery lifecycle.
As the…
