W.While the path to a low carbon economy is well underway, the best path to get there is still under debate. Amid the multitude of “paths” and “roadmaps”, however, there is a broad consensus: “clean” technologies will play a crucial role.
Nowhere is this more true than with transport. In order to reduce vehicle emissions, an alternative to the internal combustion engine is required.
While green hydrogen is evolving rapidly, much of the early advances are in electric vehicles (EV). Despite stagnating new vehicle purchases overall, the latest monthly figures show a 50% jump in sales of electric vehicles compared to the previous year.
If you can make a battery serviceable, it is possible to add 10 years to its life by Carlton Cummins, co-founder of Aceleron
But “clean” is a relative term. Electric vehicles have no exhaust fumes that emit emissions, but the raw materials that go into them contain as much, if not more, carbon as their combustion equivalents. A recent study by the Guardian shows that the human rights and environmental costs of the green transport revolution are still not fully taken into account in the race for electric vehicles.
The batteries that use EVs are a big part of this problem and can add almost 3,000 kg to the weight of the car. They contain rare metals – many come from the poorest and most ecologically sensitive places on earth.
However, eco-innovations are underway. Here we consider five initial efforts to improve the environmental performance of EV batteries at different stages of their lifespan.
Mining: Rescuing the aquifer
Sourcing raw metals for batteries has been linked to environmental and human rights impacts such as child labor (cobalt) and river pollution (copper).
An Eramet plant in Salta, Argentina, where the French metals company is working on a process that filters the water used in lithium production so that it can be returned to its source. Photo: Handout
Lithium, a rare earth metal that EV batteries are heavily dependent on, is extracted from land or underground aquifers. In the latter, vast amounts of salty groundwater are pumped to the surface and then evaporated in huge, lake-sized basins. The French metal group Eramet is experimenting with an alternative based on “nanofiltration”, which filters the water through natural mineral granulate and returns it to the aquifer. The company has invested € 200 million (£ 145 million) in the project, including building a working prototype in Salta, Argentina. With 90% yields, almost twice as high as the industry average, less pure lithium ends up “in the trash can”, says Philippe Gundermann, Executive Vice President for Strategy and Innovation at Eramet. The company also recently announced the start of construction on a new lithium facility in Argentina, which it claims will meet 15% of Europe’s lithium needs.
Design: go modular
Electronics have an obsolescence problem that electric vehicles share. The switch to electric drives is expected to generate 12 million tons of battery waste by 2030. Step forward Aceleron. The British startup hopes to be able to do for battery packs what the Dutch company Fairphone did for smartphones; namely go modular. The key components of an electric battery – cathode, anode, separator, cooling system, fuses, mounting hardware, etc. – all have different lifetimes. Most batteries are glued or welded, which makes access to a defective component a headache. Aceleron’s alternative uses compression to reduce the need to connect components, making it easier to disassemble a battery for repairs, maintenance, or reuse. “If you can get a battery operational, you can add 10 years to its life,” says Co-Founder Carlton Cummins. The Midlands-based company has signed contracts to use its battery system in trucks and off-road vehicles.
The Aceleron battery is designed so that it can be easily disassembled so that its components can be sent in for repair, maintenance or reuse. Photo: 44799 / Handout
Reuse: energy storage
At some point the battery performance will decrease. The storage capacity may not allow 250 km round trip, but that doesn’t make it useless. Connected Energy, a Newcastle-based company, is taking old EV batteries and combining them into stationary power storage. “We use the batteries almost exactly as they come out of the vehicle,” says CEO Matthew Lumsden. Each battery in the unit is connected to a computer system that monitors temperature levels and energy availability, and manages charge and discharge rates. Connected Energy has a dozen second life power plants operating in industrial locations across the UK and Europe, which are set to double in the coming months. Lumsden expects its solution to ramp up from 2025, when EV drivers first start upgrading their cars and more batteries become available. Unpublished studies by Lancaster University show that around 1,100 tons of carbon dioxide are saved for every megawatt hour provided by the Connected Energy storage system.
Matthew Lumsden, CEO of Connected Energy. The company converts old EV batteries into stationary electricity storage. Photo: Handout
Recycling: low-energy melting
When the level of performance reaches the point where reuse options diminish and recycling becomes a viable option. Most electric cars are powered by lithium-ion batteries. These are not only very “volatile”, as they are fire-prone, but, despite the name, contain comparatively little lithium. Umicore, based in Belgium, a former smelter turned “Urban Miner”, has developed a state-of-the-art recycling system that melts the core components into a metal alloy (including copper, nickel and cobalt) and a concentrate (containing lithium and other rare earth elements) . Due to the battery’s own energy and the organic components of its materials, “relatively little energy” is supplied to achieve the temperatures required for melting, says company spokeswoman Marjolein Scheers. Heat is also created from the burning of harmful gases that are created in the process.
Umicore’s recycling site in Antwerp. The plant’s state-of-the-art system is capable of recovering core components and rare earth metals from EV batteries. Photo: Handout
Umicore’s location in Antwerp’s Hoboken district can recycle 35,000 EV batteries annually, making it one of the largest in the world. “Low-impact battery recycling will be crucial in order to lower the entire CO2 footprint of rechargeable battery materials and to provide recycled content in order to drive the change towards electromobility,” says Scheers.
Transparency: battery pass
What if electric car buyers entering a showroom could find out not only how far a single charge can take them or how long it takes to go from 0 km / h to 60 km / h, but also the details on how to get it Will the car battery go before it reaches you? the forecourt? That is the goal of an ambitious project of the Global Battery Alliance (GBA). The private-public initiative coordinated by the World Economic Forum intends to bring the battery “passport” onto the market at the end of next year.
The digital tool promises to track the management of social and environmental risks over the life of an EV battery, from possible human rights violations during mineral extraction to energy consumption during its production. Anna Pienaar, executive director at GBA, says the voluntary passport will enable regulators to “track the environmental and human rights impact of EV batteries and make better informed decisions for customers.” The steering committee of the project includes the automobile manufacturers Audi and Renault as well as the mining company Glencore.
