{"id":12870,"date":"2025-09-09T09:16:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=12870"},"modified":"2025-09-09T09:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:16:55","slug":"recycling-lithium-from-old-electric-vehicle-batteries-could-be-done-cheaply-with-new-electrochemical-process","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/recycling-lithium-from-old-electric-vehicle-batteries-could-be-done-cheaply-with-new-electrochemical-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycling lithium from old electric vehicle batteries could be done cheaply with new electrochemical process"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>
Chemistry Professor Kyoung-Shin Choi\u2019s research lab has developed an electrochemical method to recycle lithium that\u2019s catching the attention of electric vehicle makers. Photo: Jeff Miller \/ UW\u2013Madison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With ever more electric vehicles on the road, regulators and automakers are considering what can be done with the millions of batteries that power EVs after they\u2019re spent. Even when their useful life is over, EV batteries contain valuable lithium that could theoretically be recycled and used in new batteries, but coming up with a cost-effective way to do so is critical.<\/p>\n

Now, a group of University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison chemists are hopeful they\u2019ve found a solution, and they\u2019re already filing patents and courting global carmakers.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Three
Pictured from left to right, staff scientist Dohwan Nam, chemistry professor Kyoung-Shin Choi and graduate student Brian Foster have developed an electrochemical method to recycle lithium in spent lithium iron phosphate batteries from electric vehicles and other applications as pure lithium chemicals to make new batteries.\u00a0<\/em>Photo: Jeff Miller \/ UW\u2013Madison<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The work has been led by\u00a0Kyoung-Shin Choi<\/a>, a UW\u2013Madison chemistry professor who specializes in developing electrochemical processes for various ends. In this case, Choi and her colleagues have come up with a proof of concept for using electrochemistry to extract lithium from spent lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which have been widely adopted by major EV manufacturers like Tesla and China\u2019s BYD.<\/p>\n

Lithium-based EV batteries come in a few flavors, and while LFP batteries have lower energy densities than batteries that are based on elements like nickel, manganese, and cobalt, they\u2019re significantly cheaper to produce and safer to operate. On the flip side, iron and phosphate aren\u2019t worth much compared to nickel or cobalt, making LFP batteries less attractive from a recycling perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, there\u2019s no economically compelling method to recover lithium from spent LFP batteries even though the market is shifting to them,\u201d says Choi, who noted that obtaining lithium from mines and brine deposits has many negative environmental consequences, even if it may be cheaper than recycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccess to these natural lithium resources is also limited,\u201d Choi says. \u201cWe need an innovative method that makes lithium recovery from spent LFP batteries commercially viable to support a circular and competitive battery economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem has become all the more pressing for global carmakers since the European Union has new regulations aimed at reducing the environmental impact of batteries. Beginning in 2031, batteries in new EVs sold within the EU\u00a0will be required to incorporate a minimum percentage of recycled lithium.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/em>
A dish of lithium phosphate recovered from an electrochemical experiment running in Choi\u2019s research lab.\u00a0<\/em>Photo: Jeff Miller \/ UW\u2013Madison<\/em><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Current methods for recovering lithium from spent batteries depend on energy-intensive heat or an extensive series of steps that consume a lot of chemicals and generate significant waste, Choi says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of them are economically unfeasible for recovering lithium from spent LFP batteries,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Instead, Choi developed a two-step electrochemical process that doesn\u2019t require special conditions and minimizes chemical inputs and waste. The first step sees lithium ions leached out from spent LFP batteries and selectively extracted by a lithium-ion storage electrode. In the second step, the extracted lithium ions are released in a separate solution to recover them as high-purity lithium chemicals.<\/p>\n

Choi and her colleagues have demonstrated the process\u2019s viability using both a commercial LFP battery and black mass, which is an industrially mass-produced substance from spent LFP batteries. They\u00a0recently detailed the process in the journal ACS Energy Letters<\/a>\u00a0and have filed a patent for it through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.<\/p>\n

The work has begun to catch the attention of battery makers and automakers who are seeking new ways to bolster the resilience of the battery market and are interested in the commercial viability of the electrochemical process. Choi\u2019s team is now developing a prototype of the technology to answer some outstanding questions about how to commercialize the process, and she\u2019s forming a startup company in hopes of seeing it become successfully commercialized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology works, but it is important to scale it up in the most cost-effective manner,\u201d Choi says, adding that it will be crucial for successful commercialization to streamline the technology with other steps in the overall recycling process such as the production and use of black mass.<\/p>\n

\n

This work was supported by Samsung E&A and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2137424)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Will Cushman
\nLink to original story: https:\/\/news.wisc.edu\/recycling-lithium-from-old-electric-vehicle-batteries-could-be-done-cheaply-with-new-electrochemical-process\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With ever more electric vehicles on the road, regulators and automakers are considering what can be done with the millions of batteries that power EVs after they\u2019re spent. Even when their useful life is over, EV batteries contain valuable lithium that could theoretically be recycled and used in new batteries, but coming up with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":12871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[103],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-12870","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/12870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=12870"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=12870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}