Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize

The efficient recycling of lithium-ion batteries will rely on strong market infrastructure. Clarios' existing lead-acid battery collection network provides the necessary backbone to ensure this recycling process is sustainable and enduring. The "Powering the Future" team assembled by Clarios includes industry partners and experts to implement safe handling of spent and discarded lithium-ion batteries. 

"Clarios is uniquely positioned to be a player in the lithium recycling economy," said Power the Future team captain Michael Sendelbach. "Our solution highlights how our commitment to sustainable life-cycle management can provide a scalable answer for end-of-life and second-life battery solutions."

Clarios plans to implement a closed-loop economy through five distinct stages: batter collection, sorting and diagnoses, separation and packaging, transportation, and recycling. At each step in this process, the team has partnered with industry experts to provide state-of-the-art solutions, including Global Battery Solutions, Admiral Instruments, Environmental Restoration, and more. By coordinating between organizations, Clarios can adapt its process to distinct subgroups of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. 

The Power the Future solution implemented a successful trial run in Phase II of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize. In Phase III, the team plans to incorporate hardware and packaging solutions for a pilot-scale demonstration. In addition, Clarios will be collaborating with Voucher Service Providers from the American-Made Network to expand cost modeling tools to guide future implementation. 

To learn more about Powering the Future, contact or .

Before lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) can be safely transported for eventual recycling, the hazardous materials within these batteries must be deactivated. To address this problem, OnTo Technology has created a DISC Solution—which stands for "deactivate, identify, sort, and cut"—to minimize risks from shipping LIBs. This solution will sort batteries based on cathode chemistry using automated technology, then deactivated to neutralize flammability and chemical hazards. 

"OnTo Technology is leveraging our existing cathode-healing™ direct recycling technologies to meet the challenges that currently exist within the LIB supply chain," explained OnTo Technology team captain Lauren Crandon. "A major advantage of DISC is the ability to ship large quantities of inert, sorted, identified material at a low cost."

To disassemble and "cut" the battery packs, modules, and cells, OnTo Technology has partnered with Shape Technologies Group to implement precision cutting technology. This safe and effective method will use automated disassembly to transform end-of-life lithium-ion batteries into high-yield sorted electrode materials and clean foils. 

The implementation of the DISC Solution involves regional processing facilities at strategic locations around the country. This will allow the team to transport the resulting harvested electrode material to various destination recycling facilities. In Phase III, of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize, OnTo Technology is developing an initial pilot demonstration to show how this solution can process an average of 360 tons of spent or discarded LIBs per year. Within six years, OnTo Technology plans to scale this solution to process 86,400 tons per year, meeting the ambitious Prize goal of 90% of the existing market. 

To learn more about the DISC Solution, contact . 

Machine-learning (ML) automation introduces a vital tipping point across technology areas. The accurate sorting of end-of-life batteries is no different, offering advanced sorting systems to separate batteries by various characteristics. The Smart Battery Sorting System from Li Industries leverages this cutting-edge technology to efficiently sort and separate batteries by chemical composition, size, weight, and packaging type. This concept combines industrial cameras, a scale and force sensor, and an element detector to create the integrated ML algorithm. This system feeds end-of-life lithium-ion batteries into direct recycling processes that produce rejuvenated battery materials in a more affordable and environmentally friendly way, helping reach the ultimate goal of a 90% lithium-ion battery recycling rate.

“We believe that our automated battery sorting technology can significantly improve battery sorting capabilities,” said Li Industries team captain David Young. “Our team envisions that improved sorting will enable rapid growth in battery recycling, leading to higher quality recycling outputs, improved levels of lithium-ion battery material recovery, and an overall increase in the number of batteries that are recycled every year.”

Alongside the state-of-the-art ML sorting system, Li Industries has partnered with stakeholders within the battery recovery ecosystem to create an end-to-end solution for the recovery of LIBs. These partnerships with collectors, sorters, and recyclers are vital to improving the sorting process to meet the community’s needs.

Within Phase III of the Prize, the team is working to build a pilot-scale system capable of processing batteries at a rate of 400 kg/hr or 50% of the targeted sorting rate for this system when commercially deployed. Once commercialized, this system is projected to help catalyze consumer electronic lithium-ion batteries recycled today from the current 5% rate to 18% in 2024 and 24% in 2025 through the improved economics of battery sorting and enabling additional battery recovery capabilities such as single stream battery collection.

To learn more about the Smart Battery Sorting System, contact David Young at david.young@li-ind.com or visit www.li-ind.com.

The official contest rules for Phase III of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize are now available.  These rules detail the important dates, submission criteria, and scoring criteria for the Phase III contest. As a reminder, only Phase II winners are eligible to compete in Phase III. 

We also encourage teams to review the updated Voucher Guidelines, as well as the two new templates for use with vouchers provided under the "Resources" tab.

We look forward to watching the Phase II winners further advance and validate their concepts. 

Best wishes,

The Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Team

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the seven winners of Phase II of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize. The phased prize competition is designed to help find innovative solutions to collecting, storing, and transporting discarded lithium-ion batteries for eventual recycling. The goal is to develop and demonstrate processes that, when scaled, have the potential to profitably capture 90% of all discarded or spent lithium-based batteries in the United States, and re-introduce key materials into the U.S. supply chain.

Fourteen teams participated in Phase II of the Prize, which focused on building industry partnerships to design, simulate, and prototype a proof-of-concept solution. Phase II winners will each receive a $357,000 cash prize, in addition to $100,000 in non-cash vouchers to use at National Labs and approved organizations within the American-Made Challenges Network. These winners advance to the third and final phase of the Prize, pilot validation.  

The winning teams are:

The Battery Recycling Prize support DOE’s Energy Storage Grand Challenge, which draws on the extensive research capabilities of the DOE National Laboratories, universities, and industry to accelerate the development of energy-storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in the energy storage technologies of the future.

The $5.5 million Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize was announced in January 2019. The Prize is sponsored by the Vehicle Technologies Office and the Advanced Manufacturing Office. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) serves as the administrator of the Prize. To learn more about the Battery Recycling Prize, please visit AmericanMadeChallenges.org/BatteryRecycling.