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Nanoengineer Finds New Way To Recycle Lithium-Ion Batteries (latimes.com)
Zheng Chen, a 31-year-old nanoengineer at UC San Diego, says he has developed a way to recycle used cathodes from spent lithium-ion batteries and restore them to a like-new condition. The cathodes in some lithium-ion batteries are made of metal oxides that contain cobalt, a metal found in finite supplies and concentrated in one of the world's more precarious countries. Los Angeles Times reports how it works: The process takes degraded particles from the cathodes found in a used lithium-ion battery. The particles are then pressurized in a hot alkaline solution that contains lithium salt. Later, the particles go through a short heat-treating process called annealing, in which temperatures reach more than 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. After cooling, Chen's team takes the regenerated particles and makes new cathodes. They then test the cathodes in batteries made in the lab. The new cathodes have been able to maintain the same charging time, storage capacity and battery lifetime as the originals did. Details of the recycling method were recently published in the research journal Green Chemistry, submitted by Chen and two colleagues.
The batteries are already recycled. What isn't recycled is the electrolyte. I was all excited when I read the headline until I found out that it was bullshit. He found out how to recycle part of Li-Ion batteries. But the biggest part currently not being recycled is the electrolyte...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Creating new, non-recycled batteries already requires smelting. And requires almost 2800 degrees Fahrenheit for cobalt.