Responsible
- Claas Hoyer
- Christian Thies
Project Partner
- Companies of the automotive, chemical, and recycling industry
- various institutes of the Technische Universität Braunschweig
- WWU Münster
Initial Situation and Problem
Developing equal-zero-emission power trains supplied by renewable energy sources is a socio-political objective. In the next years, demand for both hybrid and fully electrical vehicles, especially for short- and medium-haul use, will increase due to more stringent emission limits, to prospective subsidies, and to rising prices for fossil fuels.
With the “National Development Plan for Electric Mobility” and several other measures the German federal government pursues the goal of advancing research and development as well as preparing the market for the introduction of efficient battery-powered vehicles in Germany. The Lithium-ion battery is a key technology for that, but its recycling is a challenge. Until now, no ecological and economical sustainable solutions exist that would allow the recovery of contained lithium and other active materials, used as a secondary feedstock for battery production on an industrial scale.
Objectives and Approach
The LithoRec and LithoRec 2 consortiums aim at developing and assessing powerful processes and full life-cycle concepts for industrial recycling of used Li-Ion batteries in Germany in an ecological and economical efficient manner.
LithoRec
Especially for the AIP the objective is to plan and design the structure of the underlying recycling network. For this purpose, the optimal locations for battery dismounting, collection, and recycling facilities as well as their capacities are to be determined, considering dynamic returns of used batteries over time, involved participants, and safety aspects of battery handling.
Based on the results of facility location planning, processes in the recycling plant then have to be designed, with regard to economical and ecological efficiency as well as to dynamical expandability.
Regarding the single stages of the battery’s life cycle, the processes of collection and return, secure dismounting and recycling, and manufacturing battery cells based on recycled materials have to be conceived. Regarding the whole battery life, the aging behaviour of lithium-ion batteries will be investigated. Recycling approaches are holistically assessed including ecological and economic aspects, and battery systems and security concepts in terms of ease of disassembly are developed.
The task of the AIP in particular is the design of the logistics required for the recycling network. First, the specific requirements of the network are analysed, which can be differentiated for example with regard to the basic collection approach, the stakeholders, and the considered use of trails. Based on that, a mathematical optimisation model is developed that allows for the determination of optimal locations and capacities of collectors and exploiters and for the allocation of material between them. On the basis of used battery returns, which are to be estimated in a dynamic reasonable forecast, and different development scenarios, the optimisation model is then converted into a scenario-based approach to meet the uncertain nature of battery supply and to be able to make recommendations for the network constellation.
Based on the identified network structures, the AIP will configure the recycling facilities of exploiters. This is done accounting for environmental (e.g., environmental impacts resulting from extraction of raw materials, energy costs), economic (e.g., availability of raw materials, needed investments), legal (e.g. recycling quotas), and technical aspects in the form of a mathematical optimisation model, which determines the choice and sequence of process steps as well as the number, capacities, and possible parallel connections of workstations.
LithoRec II
The objectives of LithoRec II, which is a follow-up project to LithoRec, are the continuation of the development of the LithoRec processes as well as the development of additional recycling processes, e. g. for the recovery of liquid electrolyte that is used in battery cells. This is accompanied by the realisation of a pilot facility enabling the separation of active material of up to 100 metric tonnes of cells, which then can be recovered in the existing hydrometallurgic pilot facility to gain high quality battery materials.
The AIP's task in the project is the economic analysis and assessment of the developed processes, especially in terms of the interaction of the single processes in the process chain. For that purpose, the processes' material and energy flows are gathered. Using simulation models to analyse and visualise the processes, first optimisation proposals for the operation of the pilot facility can be derived. Further, scenarios regarding economic indicators of the processes are constructed. The developed models and scenarios are used to answer various strategical, tactical, and operational questions which are discussed in partner workshops.
Further Information
- Project homepage: www.lithorec2.de
- Project overview on the website "Erneuerbar Mobil"
- Book based on project results: Kwade/Diekmann (Eds.): Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries