Used lithium batteries have become a major concern of the U.S. Department of Energy
Science and Technology Daily, Washington, February 18 (Reporter Liu Haiying) February 18 is the National Battery Day in the United States. Many Americans will replace their old batteries at home on this day and send them to a recycling center. To celebrate this unofficial holiday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a few days ago that it officially launched the construction of the Argonne National Laboratory's battery recycling research and development center, and at the same time launched 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 been used more and more widely. Today, from laptops and mobile phones to electric cars and energy storage devices, lithium-ion batteries are almost everywhere. Following this, the number of discarded lithium-ion batteries has increased at an alarming rate. Some studies predict that by 2030, the world’s 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 have adverse effects on the health of the people and the natural ecological environment.
This time, the U.S. Department of Energy established a battery recycling research and development center at the Argonne National Laboratory, aiming to develop a cost-effective recycling process to recover as many valuable materials as lithium and cobalt from waste lithium-ion batteries. The launch of the lithium-ion battery recycling award aims to encourage American companies to find innovative solutions for the collection, storage, transportation and ultimately recycling of used lithium-ion batteries. The Department of Energy will provide a total of 5.5 million U.S. dollars in award funds for the award.
The Department of Energy hopes to promote the development of new technologies through the two projects of the R&D Center and the Recycling Award, and ultimately achieve the goal of recovering 90% of key materials from used batteries, so as to reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign countries for key battery materials such as lithium and cobalt. .
