Lithium Recycling FINALLY goes global!

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Lithium recycling wasn’t considered important ten years ago when fewer than 60000 electric vehicles were sold worldwide. But today that number is 2 million …

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  4. You can also check Lithion Recycling here in Quebec, Canada, which also has developed a process for recycling lithium batteries up to 95%, and they also have a first processing plant in construction.

  6. This video misses the important point that lithium is not typically recycled from lithium-ion batteries due to its low value and difficulty in extraction. Nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper and aluminium are all the targeted elements, not lithium.

  12. There should be a law forcing companies to provide detailed plans/instructions on how to recycle everything they produce. We need to force them to take responsability for their products AFTER their lifecycle. Or even a tax incentive, making it economically unviable to not invest in recycling or even repairng.

  13. There is something here I do not understand about lithium extraction via evaporation. A chemical company I worked for extracted tons salt from water (from the Houston ship channel) with a system that utilized a vacuum to remove the water, leaving the salt behind. The method was fast and simple, so I wonder why the same method isn't used for obtaining the lithium.

  17. I love how sustainable and environmentally friendly this 'green revolution' gonna be haha. Once our civilisation has raped this finite planet of all the resources it has to fund the ridiculous game of ours, we will return back to a subsistence lifestyle (if theres anything habitable left that is) so whats the point? I give this civilisation a century max.

  18. The third route for LIB recycling is direct recycling. In direct recycling, the cathode and anode recycled and not destroyed as in the case for pyro- and hydrometallurgy.

    Another interesting area is the recovery of electrolytes, which is lost in both pyro- and hydrometallurgy.

  19. While it is encouraging to see recycling of battery packs on the increase, the initial graph at the start of the video is a telling one and something that has been a point of mine for some time now.
    Not too many purchasers of a new car keep it until the point in the graph where the EV levels out with the ICE vehicle. (125,000km)
    Many new car buyers average perhaps 20,000km a year at best and often change their cars at 3 or 4 years of age for another new car, where the graph resets for this owner.
    Yes, the original car can continue on to be better than the ICE in the hands of the new owner, but another, more environmentally intensive EV is built to replace it for the previous owner.

    As someone who works in the underground hard Rock mining industry, I see first hand how much fuel and resources go into bringing these basic resources to the surface. It's not possible to make mining environmentally friendly. You can't haul 60t of dirt up a 1:7 decline for a couple of km for 12hrs using batteries or wind power or any other green source 🤷‍♂️
    That only gets the dirt to the surface, you still need to refine and transport the Nickel, Cobalt, Lithium, Copper etc to another country to build the vehicles.
    The more EVs we build, the more we shift the CO2 problem from the car to the mining equipment….
    🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

  23. I don't understand why every model cell phone must a unique battery and now, the trend is battery that cannot be changed. Sad. I remember a time were batteries had standard sizes like AAA AA, C and D.

  25. It would be interesting to combine lithium extraction with desalinization. I'd think it would be a really good industry for someplace like Saudi Arabia:

    Access to salt water… check
    Good solar potential to speed up the evaporation process… check
    High need to desalinate water anyway… check
    Lots of land to build facilities… check
    Money to build infrastructure… check
    Need to diversify their economy away from oil for long term economic stability… check

    Seems more like something Dubai would try but they don't have the land. Most of the rest of the Middle East lacks the stability, the money, or is under international sanctions. Most of the drier parts of coastal Africa don't have the money or infrastructure to build something out. Places like California that could benefit from desalinization plants at scale have sky high property prices.

  32. Like the Paris Climate Agreement, EVs are really not the answer. They just help the wealthy tight pants hipsters feel good about themselves looking like they're doing something good for the environment while actually not doing much of any good for the environment.

  34. Ok..in 10 years EV will be controlling the car market. How will all these electricity be produced…for sure, with oil….them we will have same o bigger environmental problem, due to oil and by products of lithium batteries..

  36. TNO off the Netherlands have a program resently developt to extract heavy metals out of the process being used in a thorium reactor using water the salt solution containing heavy metal by pomp gas through where by the metal binds to the gasbubbels please look in to that

  37. How much are Recyclers willing to pay per kilo or pound? You wanna save the world and we collectors / scrappers wanna get payed. Money talks Man made global warming Bullshit walks.

  38. There's a Canadian company called American Maganese that has patented, zero environmental impact, recycling process. They have a pilot plant and so far they reported 92% extraction from batteries. So that's pretty good for a plant in continuous operation.

  40. So many people out there focus on the the problems associated with electric vehicles. Saying things like they are worse polluters than current internal combustion engines. Because of their lithium batteries or their reliance on grid power to recharge. I’m always thinking that sounds like an engineering free market problem. If we can recycle more than 90% of lead acid batteries we can do the same for lithium batteries. Now that the demand for batteries is increasing I guess we’ll have to increase the supply to keep up. It’s amazing what can be done with a little innovation.

  41. Just Have a Think and I think at least the electric car industry combined with the growing use of electronics and soon electric aircraft will force the birth of two new industries, one of which will be recycling batteries and electronics, the other will be the industrial exploration of the moon and asteroids in search for example: rare earth.

    Which brings us to a point that differentiates this point in history from that of fossil fuels, oil is not an element that can be recycled, nor mitigate its impact on the environment, much less can we look for oil in moons and asteroids, I think the industry is taking its first steps towards a multi-billion dollar economy that will not have a negative impact on our planet but will become the basis and foundation of the new economy. let's say that oil has already given what it had to offer, including a horrible burden, now is the time for human beings to totally change their concepts and get rid of the chains of the old industry. One step at a time towards a new era.

    congratulations on the videos

  45. "SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH has partnered with Prince William to launch the Earthshot Prize, which they define as the “Nobel Prize for environmentalism.” Together with a council of 11 diverse members, they will be vetting 50 solutions to the world’s most dire environmental problems by 2030, awarding $64.6 million over the course of the decade to those who come up with the best and most innovative ideas. Categories include protecting and restoring nature, cleaning our air, reviving the oceans, building a waste-free world, and fixing the climate." We have not yet begun to fight!

  46. Let's have a think here and point out something very important you have not thought about, failed to represent in a factual manner, or just do not understand what you have been reading about lithium chemistries. Firstly, lithium-ion cells have NO metallic lithium . What lithium they do contain is quite miniscule. The lithium content they contain is so small it is practically non recoverable and rarely if ever the concern for recyclers. The equivalent lithium content in lithium-ion cells (compared to lithium-metal cells) is roughly calculated at 0.3 times the rated capacity, assuming they are manufactured to industry standards. So a 2Ah 18650 cell will contain a rough equivalency of about .6 grams lithium. This equals out to about 20 complete Tesla battery modules for a 1lb equivalency. Also, recovery would be nowhere near 100%. It is just not economically, or environmentally viable to recover the lithium content. What is of most concern is the cobalt in Li-cobalt chemistries, as well as the copper used for electrodes, nickel used in some chemistries and casings in some cell types, manganese, as well as the various other metals/materials used in the various chemistries. The cobalt is the main concern with mining. There is unfortunately a lot of confusion around this subject. You may also find it surprising that the separator is the most costly part of cell construction, and can be of greater value than some of the metallic elements to recover.

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