United States to get First Recycling Facility for Lithium-Ion Vehicle Batteries
Posted Under: Battery News
As the majority of the world’s auto industry moves toward all-electric and hybrid vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries, lithium reserves have quickly become a valuable commodity. With China, Russia, and Bolivia holding a majority of these reserves, becoming dependent on these countries for lithium carbonate is a situation everyone else is trying desperately to avoid. To this end, the US Department of Energy has granted $9.5 million to a company in California that plans to build America’s first recycling facility for lithium-ion vehicle batteries.
The recipient of these funds, Anaheim-based Toxco, says it will use the grant money to expand on an existing facility in Lancaster, OH, that already recycles the lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride batteries used in today’s hybrid-electric vehicles. While the need to recycle lithium-ion batteries is fairly minute at the moment, the potential for a dramatic increase in demand on the commodity is becoming more likely by the day.
“Right now it hardly pays to recycle lithium, but if demand increases and there are large supplies of used material, the situation could change,” says Linda Gaines, a researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory’s Transportation Technology R&D Center. “We show that recycling would alleviate potentially tight supplies,” she says.
Toxco is already North America’s leading battery recycler and has been recycling single-charge and rechargeable lithium batteries used in electronics devices and industrial applications since 1992. With such a sterling track record, it comes as no surprise that the Department of Energy is investing in Toxco to reduce America’s potential for dependence on other countries for what appears to be the oil of the future.
