There needs to be a requirement that battery manufacturers pay for future recycling. That way they would be motivated to design batteries to be easily recycled.

This is one of the most properly in focus channels on environmental issues and the viable solution paths forward. I'm a physicist and this Dave B. does an enormous amount of the investigative footwork that, arguably, I should be more adept at myself! I often launch into the specific subject matter after his weekly launch. ( He finds a fair bit of Canadian content before me as well which I also should probably encounter first!) Dave B, keep up the good work -from another Dave B.

In the '90s, I visited a German car battery recycling plant. They were very, very good, with astoundingly high recovery of multiple materials. Yes, it can be done today... in fact, we have been doing it for years. Simply a matter of sharing best practices.

It will be a lot cheaper to recycle all the valuable materials we now chuck into landfills than it will be to 'mine' these same landfills in the future because all these materials are in short supply.

Northvolt in northern Sweden have their 125000 tonnes recycling plant ready this summer....using a hydrometallurgical process recycling 95% of the battery. Biggest hydrometallurgical recycling plant in the world.

Good on ya' for covering these topics Dave! I know "recycling" isn't as flashy as "New World-Changing Flying Laser Cars ", but it's just as important.

I just love that the latest battery recycling research involves a glorified rock tumbler. It seems like a c plant would be a lot simpler, use less energy, and have fewer waste components than other approaches. All of which will make it easier to get permits to build plants. That is, if it ever gets commercialized.

The Environment Agency have recently approved commercial operations for Recyclus in Wolverhampton to begin battery recycling operations. They plan to open a further five plants in the U.K. The chairman is Robin Brundle who is Martin Bundle’ older brother of F1 fame. They are partially owned by Technology Minerals (TM1 on the stock market)

The battery recycling space is growing by leaps and bounds. Lithium ion batteries are far too valuable to throw away. That would be economic insanity. The recycling rate of lead acid batteries in conventional ICE vehicles is over 99%, and they aren't worth anywhere near as much as Li-ion.

From Latin America, specifically from Argentina, I thank you for this video so full of knowledge and research. Thanks for your contribution.

As an engineer who works in industrial control systems and automation and HAS WORKED IN THE MINING INDUSTRY which includes building, upgrading or operating mines and mineral processing for iron, nickel, copper, uranium, aluminum and others. *HOW DO YOU THINK WE EXTRACT METALS FROM RAW ORE IN THE FIRST PLACE????* Crushing, grinding, solvent extraction,... these are all common practices in the mining industry. That nice little graphic at 7:30 is called a "Ball Mill." That metal mincing machining you show at 5:04. In mining those are called sizers as in they chop everything down to a certain size. They aren't as common as other crushers but I have seen them used in iron ore. The ball mills I have seen in uranium and nickel because you need to get the ore down to small particles so the acid can dissolve the metals in the ore. As for separating out different metals from solution that's common in mineral processing. All ore bodies have unwanted materials in the ore and they need to be removed or the valuable stuff needs to be removed from the rest depending on how you look at it. What makes ores bodies viable is not just the percentage of of what you want in the ore but also the "other stuff" present. Sometimes rich ore bodies aren't economic because of the "other stuff." Anyway you look at this its the same set of problems they have had in mineral extraction for centuries. The difference with recycling is that they are starting with different materials. Instead of starting with dirt out of the ground they are stating with used material from human society.

I will join the chorus and thank you for yet another super video. These are my favorite with some market research combined with your interpretation and illustration of cutting edge green technologies. A highlight of every Sunday evening. Thank you :-)

Many thanks for your excellent videos that keep us so well informed! 😊

I loved seeing the progression in recycling tech. The incredible innovations involved are a great source of hope that we'll be successful in cutting emissions and reducing environmental impact through electrification. Nice to see that a Canadian company is one of the forerunners in the field. That said, I'm very happy to know so many people, in many countries, are putting their mind to cracking these problems. Thanks for another great video!

This video goes straight to my heart. One of my first jobs was working at a landfill and rather than suffer through a second winter there I took a job at a lower end retailer during the Christmas season. That worked out okay for a few years, but the whole time I was there, I would always see the merchandise there and everywhere else as "future landfill." And batteries I have always known to be the largest contributor to toxicity in "disposable" waste.

Aahhh... warm and fuzzy... Thank you.

Here in Merica' everything is tossed into the garbage - Ni-Cd batteries, Ni-Mh batteries, lithium-ion batteries, CFL light bulbs, long florescent light bulbs.

You keep churning out high quality content at an astonishing rate. I'm a fan of your channel

I live in a small town in New Jersey USA and we have a recycling center where you drop off rechargeable batteries of all kinds. It really bugs me that while 99% of the lead in lead-acid batteries will be recycled, the vast majority of the lithium ion batteries will end up in a landfill. Glad to hear this will soon change.

Thanks for this. Subscribed! Recycling is such a universal need for the planet and I hope that people who are opposed to battery tech can see the improvements that are happening everyday.

It is great to see how many companies in many different parts of the world are developing better battery recycling methods. I enjoyed your talk at Fully Charged South and will hopefully catch up with your talks at FC North.

Thank you for another fascinating video. If all cars are going to be electric, we'll certainly need ubiquitous battery recycling. Preferably without toxic waste from solvents or acids. It seems like the only drawback of this method is time, and that's not really a problem if you have a production line constantly working.

Thank you for another awesome video! Love your show! Thumbs up!

I'll be at the show on the 19th, and glad you can support it with your expertise.

My kid's 4th grade class tried to recycle alkaline batteries as a class project. They quickly and pretty easily collected hundreds of pounds (kilos?) and took them to stores that said they accepted them. The stores all said it was too much and they had no way to accept such quantities.

'Gas mark 73' had me in stitches! 😆 Joking aside, this is a very important subject which I hadn't realised was a problem until now. Many thanks for this and your continuously educational videos!

The problem with recycling is that it has to be done at all. The focus should be on the rapid development of a battery that simply charges up and discharges as often as required - so effectively lasts forever. Then there is no recycling problem. Might sound a bit pie in the sky, but, ultimately this is the only way to go. And not just for batteries, but as a general aim. We regard recycling as a good thing and a positive step, but what it really is is a second-best 'solution' - an adminision that we didnt get things right to start with. The real answer is to make products that dont need replacing.

Recycling is really just re-mining, but with all your materials laid at your feet.

"Bit of a buggeration factor" ...love it, you really do speak my language! Hope your appearances at Fully Charged Live become a regular thing. Sadly we're not going to make it again this year due to health problems, my own and the m-i-l's. Maybe next year...😏👍💚

Thanks for covering recycling. This sounds like a good idea to my untrained mind.

What a joy. No jumping about and cartoon razamataz. Clear interesting knowledge based information

Thank you very much, Dave for the the covering such important topics! I find the animation in your videos really attractive, it’s easier to understand such complicated processes. As a non English native follower I strongly appreciate not automatically generated subtitles too :)

"buggeration factor" was the highlight for me haha. Keep up the good work.

It's wild how many different ways there are to process things for the same end results! I was thinking maybe magnetically separating them with their flux coefficients, but the fact they form oxides together is really interesting

Definitely a interesting approach. Clearly building cells in a way the the component minerals can easily be separated would be a really good idea!

New battery development technology is galloping along into the future, making batteries from as little as a couple of years ago seem very limited in comparison. And yet we're still in the foothills of development. Inevitably, battery recycling technology is behind new battery development. But, with companies like Redwood Materials and cutting edge research in universities, it won't be long before we have another industry which is finally up and galloping. It probably has a decade of ramp readiness before it really starts to be hit by truly large numbers of old BEV batteries. And then it'll just grow. And recycled battery materials are generally being considered to be of higher quality than when refined the first time round. Incidentally I enjoyed the survey which predicted that by 2030 there would be 350 million BEVs [including a few inevitable Plug-in Hybrids no doubt] worldwide. The excellent Tony Seba recently recalled a prediction made by the EIA [Energy Information Administration] in the USA, in 2010, that there would be 140 [yes, one hundred and forty] BEVs by 2035. And Tesla had already made a thousand or more original Roadsters by then. Was the total going to go down? 😂In comparison, Seba said it would Game Over by 2030. And it's looking like he'll be right again.

I think this was one of the most intense videos you have made, for which I thank you. It definitely made my grey matter work hard to understand it. However, I was particularly pleased to hear you use the word "buggeration" (10:49) and phrase "a bunch of arse" (11:48) made me very happy.

Most definitely NOT just a bunch of arse! Love ya work mate!

This is some good news for battery recycling.

Geo40 in New Zealand are making interesting progress using geothermal waste steam to recycle and refine Lithium from old batteries and such, I believe

Great channel and this process seems quite promising.

That supply chain map of 50,000 mi is quite similar to a map I saw of tennis balls 🎾 that needed to get to Wimbledon a few years back…

I know that this may sound incredibly simple and boring, but please consider UHPC, or ultra high compressive concrete. As you know, concrete is one of the most used materials on the planet, but it is basically unchanged since the development of Portland cement concrete in the 19th century. As it turns out with many things in our modern world, ordinary concrete has significant flaws but due to its remarkable acceptance and usage a mammoth industry has grown up around it which, like many major institutions, is very reluctant to change. However, there are aspects of both its creation and lifecycle which are now being closely scrutinized. Firstly, the creation of Portland cement (a prime ingredient of concrete) requires large amounts of heat energy to force the necessary chemical reactions; secondly, this reaction releases enormous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. As to the final building material created using Portland cement, it has significant vulnerabilities which require extraordinary steps to avoid. Firstly, ordinary concrete is very porous once it has cured (hardened) which make it extremely vulnerable to negative environmental influences; frankly, it is not remotely waterproof and this allows waterborne chemicals (salt etc.) to easily gain access to the interior structure where it reacts with reinforcing materials and essentially causes them to severely deteriorate and even dissolve both the basic mineral structure as well as reinforcing elements (steel etc.). What, you might say is the reinforcing necessary you may ask. That is due to concrete being essentially strong in only one aspect- compression. As the real world generally requires strength in flexural, tensile and compressive strength, this leaves objects made of un-reinforced concrete very deficient when stressed by alternate forces (I.e. earthquakes and other environmental forces like wind/waves). Additionally, concrete is very bulky when it is required to exhibit sufficient strength to support large infrastructural objects (bridges, sea-walls, skyscrapers etc.). Therefore, huge amounts of energy are required to transport everything from the basic ingredients to the finished products; creating more CO2 etc.,etc..

Nice video even already familiar with that paper from KIT it was still interesting to see how you put it in the line with the other existing recycling processes.

I like it. I'm all about recycling when it's feasible.

Slight hope for the future. Thanks for the informative episode.

Excellent. As per usual, if there's money on the table, a process to put it in someone's pocket will be developed. Well done to the researchers who put this promising process together. Let's see who picks it up and makes it commercially available.

Wonderful, comprehensive article. Thanks much.

Recyclico (AMYZF) has the most important promising and transparent recycling and upscaling process for EV batteries.

The seaotters thank you for reducing oil use ❤

Fascinating video, as always!

IN the main, for about 20+ "lab successes", we seem to get at least one that jumps that scalable hurdle; lots of lab work going on, more every day; a solution is possible in the near term, I believe. the car makers are on board and that gives a huge boost from the production side to push forward with the hard work. BTW, Big Oil didn't miss it either; and they know extractive resource operations as well as anyone in the world. If you missed it, Big Oil, before it was Big Oil was some of it still is) Big Coal. They have been less than honest since the '70s about the known impacts on our environment and the earth, and they, like the US DOD, have been spending visible money for about the last 30 odd years to protect their offshore and inshore wells and equipment as well as rolling up huge profits to "help in the transition"- to help them emerge as dominant in the new energy world as they are now. I am not sure that is a good idea- their track record to date leaves me less than thrilled to have them back as the "new guys". Always Be Well, Dave!

Thank goodness, bout time, and godspeed. 🤠 If you reading this and have money or a degree maybe put it behind some of these companies.

This is what the company that sold the Mt Marion mine has done, taken their hydromet flow sheet and developed an ‘urban mining’ company. Working with Mercedes amongst others. Scale is the issue at the moment. There is not enough batteries yet, which is causing issues for companies like Redwood getting feedstock. Car companies will have the feedstock- production scrap, recalls and end of life in places like the EU where they are required to take them back and required to put a certain amount of recycled product in. Car companies will want to keep it all in house for this reason. Redwood-Tesla, Primobius-MB. It will be the partnerships that win out and pretty standard established tech that is most economical when we get to scale

It blows my own little brain, when I hear all this complex reactions and creative thinking people employ to solve these recycling problems. Good for them. It gives me little hope that we actually can create sort of circular economy one day, caring for the recycling of materials we produce. Thanks as always for explaining it in a way that I can get some grip over it. .

Mechano-chemistry sounds pretty interesting. No exotic temperatures or pressures needed.

Thank you.

When seeing this battery recycling process, I wonder if we could recycle absolutely everything in some super giant facility after we start getting abundant cheap energy from renewables.

Pay recycling in chemistry based crypto minus fees. This way, you get a tax deductible credit already posted with tax collectors. RFID Battery tags built inside the shell would help speed up sorting/screening on most returned products and lower costs. Spectroscopy and other screening methods would still be done but sorting woild improve significantly.

Great video, I love to see how recycling is turning into a big industry now. I thought you'd gone full Ray Winston on us at 4:38

Thank you

those recycling stats are impressive to say the least providing they can bring it up to scale and (the important part) make it economically viable.

They shouldn't shred them until there're totally dead,usually it just one bad cell the rest are still usable,They should sell them on to be refurbished so folks could use them for off grid porpoises.

We need more battery reuse. There is plenty of demand on the power grid for extra battery storage. If you have a EV that has crashed the insurance company will right off all the batteries just to be paranoid. If you give an old battery to a recycling company they will recycle it. At some point you need a decision making processes that can decide cell by cell which battery cells are good and which battery cells are not good. They we can have massive amounts of battery storage on our power grid, or even a market for second hand battery cells for people building their own EV's. Or all sorts, there is a big demand for even second hand EV batteries, you only need to recycle the battery cells that are not working.

Dave, thank you for this wonderful video. I hope you are having a great day.

Excellent video as usual Dave. One thing that no one seems to be talking about is the cost of recycling lithium batteries. Do you have any cost comparisons on a kg of recycled lithium carbonate versus a kg of mined and refined lithium carbonate? Because cynically, I think the decision on what source to use is going to be driven by economics rather than ethics.

Nice one. The mechanical crusher looks cheaper than the other methods, which is of course the critical bottom line.

Thanks for another excellent video cheers! :)

LMAO 🤣 Warm n Fuzzy feeling in places they didn't know they had..

You do an amazing job on your videos. Many Thanks

Thanks for the good news well explained.

Congrats on the Fully Charged panel inclusion. Looking forward to vids.

Great to see solid efforts being made to recycle batteries. Impressive technology and, yes, the mechanical method has my vote. On reflection, I wonder if battery designers give serious thought to making the recycling process as economic and efficient as technically possible; even if it would mean a small reduction in performance? Just ‘give it a thought’.

in 2009 my 2004 Prius battery died. When it was all over I had bought a used Bad battery and they replaced it. Then I had 2 Prius batteries to get rid of. 350 Lbs. I had been recycling metal in 2008, prices were Up...... But No One wanted those batteries. One day someone said he knew a place that would take them so I let him recycle them. I don;t know if he made $$ on them

Yes, another step forward. Positivities are appreciated.

@5:55 *OK who bleached that Oompa Loompa!*

Still see almost zero recycling of almost anything here in Alaska. There are a couple places that will take SOME recycled materials, but you have to deliver to them, and most things do not pay much at all in scrap value.

Interesting video

They neef a moonshot initiative awarded to the top 5 or so and folow up initiatives to push multiple technologies higher. The awards can help with funding upgrades for the following year.

This is great!

Informative and amusing. Could you please tell me which bus I need to take to get to the Electric vehicle show. I'll be departing from Brisbane Australia. Thanks.

Thanks

Factual and clear!

Recyclico also recycles batteries. They hold some interesting patents.

I still think the biggest advancement in battery recycling will come from the government. As someone that works in manufacturing, I constantly see parts thrown away simply because they’ll be “too hard” or “too costly” to rework into workable parts. Eventually, our governments are going to have to not only mandate a required percent of recycled material that be in all batteries, but they’ll also need to mandate that all batteries get recycled in the first place.

Thank you. A shrewd look at what is promised. Fingers crossed for the team in Karlsruhe. Although I think that the desire is there for many people to change to electric vehicles, I think that the figures for the likely uptake are over optimistic by a considerable margin. Intensely populated centres, where both the need and the potential are greatest, the manufacturers have overlooked their failure to standardise battery design. In spite of efforts to design a charging network to satisfy huge numbers of EV users, anything other than battery swopping is not going to produce a speedy, convenient, mass market delivery of charges. So far only the Chinese have seen this coming.

Appealing to tea drinkers. Now that _is_ good.

The old "buggeration factor" - second time I've fallen for it this month! 😀 In all seriousness, keep up the good work!

Chuck the batteries into the ore refinement pipeline of lithium mining. It's the richest ore you can imagine!

Thanks for another quality presentation Dave 💚 🙌

Congrats, I haven't found a flaw in the Chemistry this time ;)

Interesting 🙋🏻‍♂️

Hands off my warm fuzzy feelings Dave🤣🤣

I wish them lots of luck, it won't be easy

I would like to see a kiosk similar to Coinstar collect batteries of any type and reward a pre-credit and post-credit as an incentive to recycle. People still toss batteries due to inconvenience.

👍

There needs to be end of life requirement for ease of recycling by all battery manufacturers so that they can be more easily dismantled which would reduce costs of recycling and enable faster adoption of new technologies as so much is battery dependent

Designing in the final disassembly of the batteries should be ironed out between the manufacturers and those recycling the batteries. Limiting human interaction and making disassembly easier should be a good start for streamlining recycling.

you should do a video about those folks training ai to control robots to pick recyclable stuff out of a trash conveyor. i don't know how much success they'll have with that approach, but it's an interesting story

I'm curious how, around 5:00, processing in a vacuum prevents explosions? I could see common fire being prevented, but all kinds of chemical explosions can be triggered without oxygen. And there are also many types of chemical fire that don't require atmospheric oxygen.