An overview of global power lithium-ion batteries and associated critical metal recycling

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127900Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The comprehensive information of power lithium-ion batteries and associated critical metal recycling was summarized.

  • The inductive structure of the development of the power lithium-ion battery industry including the impact factors was built.

  • Recycling critical metal materials can alleviate the tight supply of raw materials for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries.

  • The existing recycling technologies and practices can push the spent power lithium-ionbattery closed-loop recycling.

Abstract

The rapid development of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in emerging markets is pouring huge reserves into, and triggering broad interest in the battery sector, as the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs)is driving the explosive growth of EV LIBs. These mounting demands are posing severe challenges to the supply of raw materials for LIBs and producing an enormous quantity of spent LIBs, bringing difficulties in the areas of resource allocation and environmental protection. This review article presents an overview of the global situation of power LIBs, aiming at different methods to treat spent power LIBs and their associated metals. We provide a critical review of power LIB supply chain, industrial development, waste treatment strategies and recycling, etc. Power LIBs will form the largest proportion of the battery industry in the next decade. The analysis of the sustainable supply of critical metal materials is emphasized, as recycling metal materials can alleviate the tight supply chain of power LIBs. The existing significant recycling practices that have been recognized as economically beneficial can promote metal closed-loop recycling. Scientific thinking needs to innovate sustainable and cost-effective recycling technologies to protect the environment because of the chemicals contained in power LIBs.

Introduction

In recent years, owing to the vigorous development of new-energy vehicles, the global production and sales of new-energy vehicles have risen sharply (IEA, Global EV Outlook, 2020, Kendall, 2018, Qiao et al., 2020, Palmer et al., 2018, Un-Noor et al., 2017, Zhao et al., 2018). There were 10 million EVs on the roads globally by 2020, the EV registrations increased by 41% in 2020, despite the pandemic influence(IEA, Global EV Outlook, 2021). It is predicted that the total number of electric vehicles on the roads may exceed 300 million globally by 2030 (BCG, 2020). LIBs are used widely in electric vehicles because of their high reliability, fast charging capability, high energy density, long service life and light weight (Choi and Aurbach, 2016, Mukhopadhyay and Jangid, 2018, Nitta et al., 2015, Goodenough and Kim, 2010, Gandoman et al., 2019b, Xiong et al., 2017, Iclodean et al., 2017). A few years ago, some automakers, such as Mitsubishi with its NiMH, still focused on other battery technologies. However, today’s modern industry mainly focuses on LIBs, and this trend is unlikely to change anytime soon (Opitz et al., 2017). Current electric vehicles are almost entirely powered by LIBs (Cano et al., 2018, Hannan et al., 2018). The battery system occupies the largest part—about 40%—of a new-energy vehicles' cost (BNEF, 2017, Safari, 2018).

In the past 30 years, many advances in LIB technology have resulted in significant changes in energy development (Tarascon, 2016). John B. Goodenough, Akira Yoshino and M. Stanley Whittingham won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2019 for their innovative developments in LIB technology. In recent years, the sales of LIB-powered vehicles have grown tremendously and have promoted the power LIB industry (IEA, Global EV Outlook, 2020). In 2019, the power capacity of global LIB shipments came to 116.6 GWh, an increase of 16.6% over just the previous year (R.A. MARKETS, 2020a). It is estimated that by 2025, the global market for LIBs will reach 91.8 billion U.S. dollars (R.A. MARKETS, 2020b). Numerous raw materials, as well as technological development, are needed to meet this demand for the production and use of LIBs. Given that electric-car manufacturers usually provide an 8-year or 100,000-mile warranty for the batteries, the rapid growth of electric cars will translate into an enormous number of discarded LIBs (N. Energy, 2019). If there are no effective measures to dispose of and manage these vast numbers of discarded batteries, they will inevitably cause severe problems such as environmental pollution, health problems and exhaustion of natural resources (Zeng et al., 2015a, D'Adamo et al., 2020).

LIBs are mainly used in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles, electric bicycles, electric motorcycles, industrial power systems, etc. Pelegov and Pontes (2018); Korthauer (2018); Machedon-Pisu and Borza (2019); Thuy and Hong (2019); Genikomsakis et al. (2021); Zubi et al. (2018). The power LIBs in this article mainly refer to the LIBs used in electric vehicles (HEV, PHEV, BEV, etc.). Currently, typical power LIBs include lithium nickel cobalt aluminium (NCA) batteries, lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries (LEP). The current development, application and research trends among the significant electric-vehicle companies are towards NMC and NCA cathode material batteries (Hao et al., 2020). For example, Tesla prefers NCA (Romare and Dahllöf, 2017) materials, and many other electric-vehicle manufacturers also use NMC with a range of components. Lithium iron phosphate has a lower energy density, but these batteries have less expensive positive electrodes, and this material is therefore used by some electric-car manufacturers in China and other regions (N. Energy, 2019).

There have been a number of research studies on LIBs, focused mainly on recycling technologies, the supply chain of raw materials, waste management, environmental impact assessment and the economic evaluation of spent LIBs (Hannan et al., 2018, Li et al., 2018, Eftekhari, 2019, Deng et al., 2020, Chen et al., 2019). Xiao et al. (2021) found a novel way to recycle lithium from spent LIBs (Xiao et al., 2021). Zeng et al. developed a new approach to recover lithium and cobalt from waste LIBs using oxalic acid (Zeng et al., 2015b). Xiao et al. (2017) proposed an integrated approach to recycle metals from waste LIBs by mechanical separation and vacuum metallurgy (Xiao et al., 2017a). Ku et al. presented a method to recycle spent LIB cathode materials by ammoniacal leaching (Ku et al., 2016). Eftekhari (2019) studied the supply situation and strategy of LIBs for vehicles, focusing on lithium supply from the economic aspect to environmental strategies (Eftekhari, 2019). Xu et al. analysed the generation trend of waste electric vehicle LIBs, focusing on the management, development and experience of waste electric vehicle LIBs in China (Xu et al., 2017). Kavanagh et al. (2018) pointed out different industrial uses of lithium, and produced a compilation of the locations of lithium's primary geological sources (Kavanagh et al., 2018). Pinegar et al. focused on why it is necessary to recycle LIB material components by investigating the availability of resources and the current recycling practices(Pinegar and Smith, 2019). Idjis et al. focused on evaluating the impact of recycling from the economic perspective, and analysed the evolution of the scrap cost of LIBs to determine whether this could become a source of revenue for automobile manufacturers(Idjis and Da, 2017). Liu et al. discussed spent LIB recycling, emphasizing lithium recovery (Liu et al., 2019). Velázquez et al. (2019) presented the current practices and some of the most promising emerging technologies for recycling LIBs (Velázquez et al., 2019).

Some review articles on LIBs have also appeared. Makuza et al. (2021) reviewed the pyrometallurgical options for recycling spent LIBs(Makuza et al., 2021). Zhang et al. (2021) suggested the pre-treating technology for recycling metals of spent LIBs(Zhang et al., 2021). While, Sun et al. (2021) presented a comprehensive review on the topic of management status of waste LIBs in China (Sun et al., 2021). In this context, Roy et al.(2021) reviewed and highlighted the bioleaching recycling potential of the LIBS(Roy et al., 2021). Lai et al. (2021) summarized the material recycling and echelon utilization of retired LIBs(Lai et al., 2021). Yu et al. (2021) focused on the overview of the pretreatment for the recycling of the waste LIBs(Yu et al., 2021). Kim et al. (2020) presented an overview of LIBs, their materials and recycling technologies (Kim et al., 2020). Mossali et al. (2020) gave an overview of the recycling methods for LIBs and the priority ranking of heavy metals in the recycling process(Mossali et al., 2020). Huang et al. (2020) summarized the relevant aspects of LIB recycling technology, processes, environmental burden and products (Huang et al., 2018). Heidari et al. (2018) reviewed the energy storage principle, anode and cathode materials, and the mechanisms and challenges faced by LIB developers(Elham Kamali Heidari et al., 2018). Mekonnen et al. (2016) reviewed the use of cathode and anode materials for LIBs(Mekonnen et al., 2016).

Despite the large number of LIB studies conducted, however, to the best of our knowledge, the existing review articles are mostly limited to summarizing some particular aspects of traditional LIBs, such as the manufacturing technologies, recycling technologies or the anode and cathode materials(Makuza et al., 2021; Yi et al., 2021; Zheng et al., 2021; Tan et al., 2021; Jung et al., 2021; Kim et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2021). Review articles on the use of lithium-ion batteries for powering EVs are generally limited to the technical aspects of battery stability and degradation, such as summarizing the state of health and remaining useful life estimation approaches(Lipu et al., 2018; Guo et al., 2019; Nejad et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2021). Few review articles have summarized all the comprehensive vision of the industrial development, production technologies, critical raw material supply chains, associated critical metal recycling, society development, environmental and economic impact assessments of the entire life of power LIBs especially, which greatly hinders stakeholders from fully understanding the situation of power LIB use.

This article aims to provide a comprehensive vision of global power LIBs and related critical metal recycling, using an environmental and sustainability approach, through comprehensive literature reviewing to get a bird’s-eye view of the whole power LIBs industry (PLI), then to primarily find the influence mechanism of LIBs’ industrial development. The model of formula for the development of power LIBs industry have been preliminarily constructed after naming the influencing factors. Finally, the inductive diagram of a comprehensive vision of power LIBs and related critical metal recycling has been drawn out and suggestions proposed for the future research. Therefore, considering the global push towards automotive high-speed electrification, the publication of this comprehensive review article on power LIBs is urgent, novel and necessary.

Power LIBs are an emerging industry with a potential market of hundreds of billions of dollars. The South Korean market research organization SNE Research released data on the global vehicle battery market in 2020. In that year, the total battery market was around 142.8 GWh(Kane and Research, 2021). China, Europe and the US have been the largest electric vehicle markets in the recent years (IEA, Global EV Outlook, 2019). During the forecast period of 2020 to 2025, the battery market is estimated to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 12.31% (M. M. M. Intelligence, 2019). In 2025, the global installed capacity will reach 800 GWh, and the market value will reach 580 billion yuan(Pyper, 2019). By 2050, the annual LIB demand for new electric vehicle sales will reach more than 6500 GWh(Statista, 2021), as shown in Fig. 1.

Electric vehicle (EV) sales have increased nearly 20 times in the past five years (N. Energy, 2019). According to BCG analysis, there are more than 32 million electric vehicles in use around the world. It is estimated that about 1 million batteries in these passenger cars are about to reach the end of their first service life, which is equivalent to a remaining battery capacity of 4 GWh. Most scrap batteries in EOL electric vehicles will be power LIBs by 2025. According to the latest estimates, by 2030, the number of electric passenger vehicles on roads will reach 215 million (WEF, 2019), and nearly 4 million electric vehicles will be phased out each year. The corresponding power batteries will be retired, although the retired power LIBs will still maintain 70% to 80% of their initial capacity (Bobba et al., 2018). Therefore, 100–120 GWh EV Batteries are expected to be phased out by 2030(IEA, Global EV Outlook, 2020), and these will contain significant amounts of valuable metals and toxic chemicals. Circular Energy Storage has estimated that by 2030, recovery facilities would be able to recover 35 thousand tons of cobalt, 125 thousand tons of lithium and 86 thousand tons of nickel. Based on the current prices of these materials, this will increase the market by $6 billion (WILLUHN, 2019). The future waste forecast also predicts that by 2030, the cumulative scrap volume of electric vehicle battery modules will reach 4 million tons, which is higher than the current global recycling capacity (Pinegar and Smith, 2019). By 2040, the amount of spent LIBs will reach 1321.9 GWh in the sustainable development scenario of IEA’s prediction (IEA, 2021), as shown in Fig. 2.

Since 2009, China has become the largest auto producer (Masiero et al., 2016). It was also the world's largest electric vehicle market and the largest battery manufacturer until year 2019, as the market of Europe overtook China for the first time in 2020 according to the newest global EV outlook 2021 (IEA, Global EV Outlook, 2021). China's current electric vehicle ownership ranks first globally, accounting for 60% of global production capacity. In 2019, there were 7.2 million electric vehicles on the roads worldwide, of which 47% were located in China (IEA, Global EV Outlook, 2020). Automakers will invest US$135 billion in developing electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries in China in the next five to ten years (Pyper, 2019).

Prior to 2016, China's main new-energy vehicle batteries were dominated by lithium iron phosphate batteries, but since then, ternary LIBs have gradually come to account for the major portion (Sina, 2019). Therefore, in China, LIBs are dominated by ternary batteries (R.A. MARKETS, 2020a). In 2019, the total installed capacity of LIB in China was 62.2 GWh, a cumulative increase of 9.2% year-by-year. Among these, the total installed volume of ternary batteries was 40.5 GWh, accounting for 65.2% of the total installed volume, a cumulative year-by-year increase of 22.5%; the cumulative volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 20.2 GWh, a cumulative decrease of 9.0% year-by-year. In 2019, the top three types of installed vehicles of China's LIB companies were CATL (31.46 GWh), BYD (10.75 GWh), and Guoxuan High-tech (3.43 GWh) (FM, Telex, 2020).

From the perspective of battery types, because there was a large amount of lithium iron phosphate in the early development stage, these elements will enter the peak scrap stream first. According to the China Automotive Technology Research Centre calculations, China's total scrapped LIBs will exceed 200,000 tons in 2020, and the market value will exceed 10.1 billion yuan. Among these, the cascade utilization market scale accounts for 59.81%, and the domestic market value of nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium, and other metal recycling will exceed 40 billion RMB from 2021 to 2025. According to estimates, the scale of LIB recycling and decommissioning will reach 48 GWh by 2023, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 57%; by 2021, the recycling market will be dominated by echelon utilization (Sina, 2019). The perspective quantity of spent power batteries will reach 464,000 tons in China, as shown in Fig. 3. And it is estimated that by 2030, China will generate 57% of global battery waste. Among the leading 50 LIB recycling organizations or enterprises in the world, 30 of them are headquartered in China (WILLUHN, 2019).

Section snippets

The technologies and patents situations in producing LIBs

Electrical energy will eventually replace oil as the lifeblood of transportation, and batteries are the key to electric transportation in the future. Their development will affect the opportunities for electric vehicles. Furthermore, how far electrification will go mainly depends on one factor: battery technology (Crabtree, 2019). Power LIBs are composed mainly of anode, cathode, baffle, electrolyte and battery shell. The cathode is very important among these main components because the

The critical metal materials of power LIBs, and their reserves

The increase in battery use and capacity drives the demand for critical metal and other component materials. From the value chain, we can see that the LIB industry involves many related industries, such as the mining industry for obtaining raw materials, the inorganic industry for obtaining active cathode materials, and so on(Zubi et al., 2018). The global resources of key raw materials for lithium-ion batteries show a relatively concentrated distribution (Sun et al., 2019, Calisaya-Azpilcueta

Innovative practices and regulations of power LIBs

Waste power LIBs contain potentially toxic substances, including heavy metals, such as copper and nickel, and organic chemicals. In addition to developing advanced recycling technologies, power LIB use also requires innovative management, which in turn requires policy-driven, enterprise-led, synchronized consumer cooperation, and a multi-pronged approach. This can turn waste into resources, as the waste power LIBs can also serve as valuable urban mines (Li, 2015, Boxall et al., 2018). Although

Summary and conclusion

In summary, through comprehensive literature review and analysis, we found that the development of the power LIBs industry (PLI) is jointly affected by many factors, which include EV industry development, technological development, policies and regulations, society development, environmental and economic impacts, innovative practices, which shown as inductive diagram Fig. 9. Therefore, we named the influencing factors as REV, RT, RP, RS, REN, RI(REV refers to EV industry development, RT refers

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Youping Miao: Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing − original draft, Visualization, Writing − review & editing, Software. Lili Liu: Supervision, Writing − review & editing. Yuping zhang: Investigation, Data curation. Quanyin Tan: Funding acquisition, Writing − review & editing. Jinhui Li: Resources, Supervision, Writing − review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

This research received financial support from the "National Natural Science Foundation of China" (71804085).

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