The lithium-ion battery business is taking off, and the battery recycling business is close behind. Financiers are pouring over a billion dollars into recycling companies like Redwood Materials, Ascend Elements, and Li-Cycle. But success depends on a steady supply of used batteries, and with batteries lasting longer than expected — and the battery market still in its infancy — there just aren’t enough dying batteries to go around. 

As a result, a significant portion of recyclers’ feedstock is coming from manufacturer scrap, i.e. the waste that companies like SK On and Panasonic don’t turn into cells at the factory. But these battery makers are incentivized to minimize waste, which raises big questions about whether recyclers will be able to get enough used batteries to sustainably feed their operations.

So which technologies and business models will succeed in this chapter of the battery industry?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Dan Steingart, chair of the earth and environmental engineering department at Columbia University. (Steingart’s lab gets funding from battery manufacturer Northvolt.) Shayle and Dan cover topics like:

• The steps in nickel-manganese-cobalt battery recycling and what Dan calls “zombie lithium”
• The differences between pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy
• Dan’s bet on solvent extraction as an under-appreciated technology
• Redwood Materials’ focus on winning the feedstock battle
• Ascend Elements’ hydro-to-cathode technology
• Li-Cycle’s focus on making inputs for cathode manufacturers
• How these recyclers want to compete downstream by producing cathode precursor and cathode material 
• Why Dan is surprisingly bearish on direct recycling for lithium-iron-phosphate

Recommended Resources:

Nature Sustainability: Examining different recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries

Latitude Media: What’s so hard about building a circular battery economy?

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