SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate feasibility of recycling material from lithium-ion batteries. The research project will recycle scrap batteries using innovative processes that produce material suitable for use in new batteries. The project will process and characterize the recycled materials and compare those technical results with appropriate standards. To stage the pre-commercial demonstration, new cells will use recycled materials and be characterized directly for capacity, rate and cycle life. The Phase I project will result in comparative analysis of cells made from recycled material and standard material, with performance expectation to be within 5-10% of standard, and at 30% of the original cost of material.

This Phase II Small Business Innovation Research project develops the scale of lithium-ion direct recycling technologies applied to gain efficiencies in materials management from original manufacturing to end-of-life. The scrap materials are from Defense Logistics Agency manufacturing activities. A successful effort moves direct recycle TRL from 4 to 6, increases process throughput, qualifies material for re-use in manufacturing for DLA applications, and outlines a cost savings of 30% for batteries built with reclaimed material. The Phase I program demonstrated direct recycling of new lithium-ion formulations, returning full capacity and performance to battery materials worn to 80% of their original capacity. The process model shows the capability of producing lithium-ion electrode materials for 30% of the cost of competitive material. These technologies implemented into a future service will address DLA Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Objectives for "improved business methods" through reuse of critical materials, and "affordability and advanced industrial practices" with low cost electrodes from reclaimed materials. The successful development and implementation to a business service impacts lithium-ion manufacturing with the reduction and elimination of end-of-life disposal fees, and 30% reduction in the cost of advanced cathode materials. ---------- This project, Lithium Battery Deactivation/Render Safe, will develop and demonstrate technology to transform live or damaged batteries into inert items on an mobile-pilot scale suitable to process batteries in a relevant environment. The project will build upon successful developmental work supported through EERE DE-EE0008475 “Elimination of Class-9 Hazards in Lithium-ion Recycling”, and the DLA Phase II project which demonstrated Technical Readiness Level 6 capability in-house at OnTo Technology, LLC for the treatment and validation of battery deactivation from Seattle Transit Bus batteries, Nissan Leaf electric vehicles (EVs), Ford C-Max EV, Ultima-related EV batteries, a crashed Tesla battery, internet technology applications, and defense-application batteries. OnTo’s successful Phase II Made-in-America Battery Recycling Prize demonstrated technical validation of elimination of self-heating in accelerated rate calorimetry testing through Sandia National Laboratory. Technical Approach: The project will (1) construct and demonstrate a mobile deactivation processor based upon OnTo’s patented deactivation technology for use on electric vehicle and energy storage end-of-life batteries and (2) develop process control, personnel training programs, and mobility features to improve the battery deactivation technical readiness level (TRL7).