Impact of Lithium Battery Recycling and Second-Life Application on Minimizing Environmental Waste

In the prospect of greener transportation means and global emission limitations for the protection of the environment, the electric vehicles’ market share is constantly increasing. It is expected that 32% of new vehicles sold in 2030 will be pure electric or plug-in hybrids. As all electric vehicles utilize lithium batteries to power the powertrain, the need for rare earth materials, like lithium or nickel, exceeds the planet’s ability to provide the required capacities. Additionally, even though lithium-ion batteries provide high energy density, they have some disadvantages like a limited range and durability at high-temperature operation. This issue can be improved greatly with the implementation of a hybrid energy storage system consisting of batteries and ultracapacitors. In this paper, the power efficiency of this storage system will be analyzed. Finally, when the cells reach below a specific capacity threshold, they can be removed from the vehicle to be installed in renewable energy plants for storing surplus energy production. Therefore, environmental waste is minimized while simultaneously assisting grid power demands, before being recycled to recover a portion of the rare metals used.