The U.S. Department of Energy encourages exploration of 402030 battery recycling technology

As the transportation industry focuses on green transformation, more and more electric vehicles will appear on the road in the future. The U.S. Department of Energy is tackling a major recycling problem: how to deal with the batteries used by electric vehicles.

EV Battery Recycling Solution Grand Prix

On September 25, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded a check for $67,000 to each winner of a competition to ensure that batteries do not end up in landfills. The winners were rewarded for finding a way to collect used electric vehicle (EV) batteries, effectively extract valuable materials from them, or find a "second life" for batteries that can still store electricity.

Daniel Simmons, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, announced the award at a meeting of winners and industry experts. The meeting, held by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, focused on the problems caused by the growing number of electric vehicles. It is understood that less than 5% of electric vehicle battery materials are recycled. Simmons said many companies are interested in finding ways to standardize the process. This is also the goal of the second phase of the competition. The winners can earn a prize of $250,000 to $300,000. The third phase of the prize money has been increased to $500,000 to $1 million, and the content of the reward has been expanded to how to deal with the surge in the number of electric vehicles. The number of electric vehicles in the United States is expected to double by 2025 and quadruple by 2030.

Use of used batteries

"We want 'out of the box' ideas. In the future, the United States will rely more on minerals to make batteries than fossil fuels," Simmons said in an interview. Simmons pointed out that the most valuable lithium-ion battery packaging - cobalt - must be imported, mainly from Congo. Battery recycling can also process nickel and aluminum. Simmons explained: "Our goal is to keep these materials away from landfills as much as possible. The goal of the reward is to stimulate new technologies to achieve recycling of up to one-third of the materials needed for batteries by 2025."

Traditional car owners can disconnect the wires and remove the old battery from the car. But in electric vehicles, the extraction process is very different. Electric vehicle batteries can weigh up to 1,500 pounds, take up most of the chassis, and are expected to last 15 years, roughly equivalent to the life of the car. After the vehicle is scrapped, some of these batteries still have enough "life" to store renewable energy, some can be used as backup power systems for buildings, and when multiple groups of batteries are connected together, they can also be used as energy storage units for small towns.

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