metal recyclers prepare for electric car revolution - li ion battery cell

LONDON (Reuters)-
Recycling companies are honing the process to extract metals from old batteries cheaper and more efficiently, so that they can take advantage of material shortages such as expected cobalt and lithium when electric vehicles sell off.
The main obstacle now faced by recyclers is the shortage of recycled waste batteries to reduce their technical costs
But those at the forefront of the industry believe supply and profit will come.
Albrecht Melber said: "The value of lithium carbonate and natural or synthetic graphite has tripled in the past three or four years, becoming the most valuable material in addition to cobalt in car batteries, common
Said the general manager of the German recycling company Accurec.
"There is a lot of value to recycle in the future.
"By 2025, the sales of electric vehicles are expected to exceed 14 million from less than a million vehicles now, which has exacerbated the surge in battery material consumption. (Graphic -
The rising electric vehicle: tmsnrt. rs/2eNwQoZ)
Data expert Benchmark Mineral Intelligence predicts that by 2021, the industry will need an additional 30,000 tons of cobalt and 81,000 tons of lithium per year to meet demand.
The commodity research group CRU expects that the recovered cobalt will reach 11,600 tons in 2021, up from the current 7,110 tons per year, and will reach 24,900 tons by 2026, accounting for 9.
7% and 17.
9% of the total market supply.
In China, electric vehicles sold more than half a billion last year, recyclers are ready to deal with a lot of battery waste, and others have seen opportunities. “A 1,000-
The pound lithium cobalt battery contains a cathode material worth about $6,000 at the top of the value chain, and the nickel battery is worth about $1,700. cobalt-
Low-end aluminum batteries, "said Larry Reaugh, chief executive of Canadian metal recycling company manganese. AMY. V).
"If this is equivalent to mining, you will have very good quality raw materials," he said . ".
"You might say we're mining the batteries.
"Most electric vehicles are powered by lithium NMC batteries, which use cathode and graphite anode consisting of nickel, manganese and cobalt.
The extraction of sufficient cobalt to meet demand is of particular concern, as much of the world's supply comes from conflict-prone mining areas-the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Price of cobalt COB-CATH-
So far this year, LON has more than doubled. (Graphic -
Battery Material Requirements: reut. rs/2zzGHaG)
At present, the supply of lithium mainly mined in Chile is much less pressure, and new production in Argentina and Australia will also be put into production.
But about the supply of lithium in the battery
As electric vehicle sales grew, prices rose more than 30% to a record $12,000 a tonne.
In addition to the shortage of old batteries to be recycled, businesses face the challenge of extracting lithium in a reusable form.
Most recyclers heat old batteries to high temperatures to recover metals, a process known as fire metallurgy.
But this usually only produces cobalt, and sometimes nickel, and lithium is harder to extract and more expensive.
Recycling costs vary widely, but for the sake of economics, the CRU estimates that it needs to be converted back to lithium carbonate at a maximum cost of $7,000 per ton.
For now, lithium is often wasted in slag that can be used as building materials or thrown away.
But as prices for all these metals rise, things may change.
Technological advances are key to recovering more scrap metal from batteries, and some companies say they have developed ways to get lithium, and once there is a stable supply of used batteries that can be recycled, lithium willUmicore (UMI. BR)
Using a combination of fire methods and chemical processes known as metallurgy, the recovery of lithium and rare earths from slag, as well as the extraction of cobalt, nickel and copper.
"The battery is a complex matrix of materials," Umicore said . ".
"However, our process allows (us)
Separate and concentrate lithium in a process step and produce alloys containing cobalt, nickel and copper.
"Umicore runs a 7,000-
It can handle the ton capacity of about 35,000 electric vehicle batteries every year.
The Belgian company, analysts say
It is by far the most developed lithium-ion battery processor in Europe.
"The best way for investors right now is Umicore," said Tobias Bischoff, a portfolio manager at pic Wealth Management global new mobile fund consultant de Pury Pictet Turrettini & Cie. U. S.
Since 2002, Retriev Technologies has been recycling lithium-ion batteries, cobalt, nickel and copper at its plant in Trail, BC.
Two years ago, the company expanded a plant in Ohio to handle lithium-ion batteries.
At the end of 2012 last year, production doubled in the walkway facilities, and the same factory handled about 12 million tons of batteries.
Todd Koy, vice president of the company, said the company expects growth to be similar in the next five years.
Other companies are also pushing the recycling of lithium-ion batteries.
Accurec now has 1,000-
At the Krefeld plant in western Germany, a demonstration plant for recycling car batteries in tons of capacity, although it says the quantity is still small.
New metal in Australia (NMT. AX)
A pilot plant is being set up in Montreal to develop processes tested in laboratories and small laboratories
Scale plant for extraction of cobalt, lithium and nickel.
Also in Canada, Manganese said it could recover 100% of lithium.
And cobalt, nickel, manganese and aluminum-
From the battery, use the technology originally developed to handle low
Grade manganese ore.
The company has completed the proof of concept of its process and is applying for a patent.
The next step is to test the factory.
However, without economies of scale, the commercial development of recyclers is difficult, because economies of scale will increase as the supply of used batteries increases.
For example, Retriev said that a large amount of lithium will be the key to the development of lithium recovery using metallurgical technology.
"At the current commodity price, we need about 4,000 tons of batteries per year to prove that the estimated capital cost is more than three times the current processing volume," said Coy of Retriev . ".
"We believe this book will be published in the future --beyond 2023 -
But the market has not yet appeared.
"While sales of electronic cars are growing rapidly, the average life of lithium-ion car batteries is between 8 and 10 years, which means that it will be the best time of the decade before a lot of consumption.
S. Manganese Company's Reaugh says it plans to initially focus on recycling materials from defective batteries to avoid working batteries expiring.
Even if they do, battery makers say many will have a second storage as a grid for most of the next decade.
BMW, German car manufacturerBMWG. DE)
For example, the company says its batteries are designed specifically for this purpose.
The battery used by the grid storage system is no longer used to power the car to store power, which can be used to eliminate fluctuations in supply and demand.
Still, not everyone believes that grid storage will prevent recycling.
"At the end of the day, it will depend on whether the raw materials stored in the battery as a grid are worth more than the battery," said CRU analyst George Heppel . ".
"I think there will be a better incentive to recycle these materials, from there to make more efficient batteries with new technologies.
Umicore said that it is expected that the number of used batteries will exceed 100,000 tons per year in the next ten years, and "a large number" will enter the market by about 2025.
Once this happens, there will be fewer opportunities for recyclers to take advantage.
"This is definitely a market that can become very important," said Bischoff, portfolio manager . ".
"We have seen it, and we will see it again.