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StorageX Initiative is a cross-campus effort of the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Designing and Evaluating Battery Recycling Unit Processes

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PIs: Will Tarpeh, Chemical Engineering. Sally Benson, Ines Azevedo, Energy Science & Engineering

The overall goal of the proposed research is to integrate the design of recycling processes with battery operation and supply chain logistics. Informing process design with practical battery performance requirements and more efficient logistics will accelerate the transition to a circular battery economy. Within this battery economy, we investigate element-specific recovery focused first on lithium, cobalt, and nickel. We pursue three complementary objectives in this proposal: (1) determine the effect of feedstock composition (e.g., homogeneous vs. mixed stream) on separation process performance; (2) evaluate the effect of centralization on the separation performance of novel battery recycling unit processes; and (3) establish relationships between separation process performance and battery performance. We focus on three classes of separation techniques: metallurgical, membrane, and adsorption processes. These efforts advance two C2E2 Research Pillars: new processing technology for recycling and environmental impact assessment tools.