Eli5: How is Lithium from batteries recycled? Bonus points for an explanation of what happens to lithium if/when it can no longer be recycled.
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They’re shredded (if needed) and the bulk materials are separated (typically by chemical dissolution or burning in a closed process).
After that, the materials are collected and purified.
Theoretically, you can keep reusing the material, and it’s typically cheaper to recycle batteries than mine/refine new material.
It’s very early right now, with a huge ramp-up in battery manufacturing, so we’ll need to watch as the recycling industry spools up. (Look at it this way, the recycling industry is going to be a battery lifetime – or about 10 years – behind the EV industry, so everything is in an R&D phase.)
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