Waste lithium batteries become a major concern of the US Department of Energy

February 18 is the National Battery Day in the United States. On this day, many Americans will replace their old batteries at home and send them to the recycling center. To celebrate this unofficial holiday, the US Department of Energy has announced the official launch of the construction of the battery recycling research and development center of the Argonne National Laboratory and the lithium ion battery recycling award project to promote the recycling of key materials in lithium-based batteries.

Since commercialization began in the early 1990s, lithium-ion batteries have become more widely used. Today, lithium-ion batteries are almost everywhere, from laptops and mobile phones to electric cars and energy storage devices. Along with this, the number of waste lithium-ion batteries has increased at an alarming rate. Some studies predict that by 2030, the global scrapped lithium-ion batteries will reach more than 11 million tons. At present, the recycling rate of used lithium ion batteries in the United States is less than 5%. If this problem cannot be effectively solved, it will cause adverse effects on the health of the people and the natural ecological environment.

This time, the US Department of Energy set up a battery recycling R & D center at Argonne National Laboratory to develop a cost-effective recycling process to recover as much valuable materials as lithium and cobalt from used lithium-ion batteries. The Lithium Ion Battery Recycling Award was launched to encourage American companies to find innovative solutions for the collection, storage, transportation, and even recycling of used lithium ion batteries. The US Department of Energy will provide a total of $ 5.5 million in award funds for the award.

The U.S. Department of Energy hopes to promote the development of new technologies through the R & D Center and the Recycling Award, and finally achieve the goal of recovering 90% of key materials from used batteries to reduce the United States ’foreign rely.