SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project is to improve the recycling rates and efficiency of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, as well as lower the cost of cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. This research project will accomplish these goals by recovering cathode material from a broad spectrum of Li-ion battery regardless of size, shape or chemistry. By lowering the cost of cathode materials, this project has the potential to make green technologies more viable by making energy storage more affordable. This project will seek to develop a novel method of recovering active cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries that does not require any sorting. The recovery of active cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries is a key advancement for Li-ion battery recycling because the cathode material is the most expensive part of the battery. This advancement is critical because traditional recycling processes only recover individual metals from the batteries. Recovering the cathode material also requires less energy than synthesizing virgin cathode materials. This project seeks to be able to offer low cost cathode materials while reducing the carbon footprint of the battery industry.The technical objectives of this Phase 1 research project are to improve the electrochemical performance of the recovered cathode materials by developing methods to control the particle morphology and increase the particle density. These improvements will increase the capacity and cycle life of the cathode materials. The conditions that control impurity removal will be closely monitored to facilitate producing cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries with impurity levels similar to virgin materials. The process recovery efficiency will also be optimized. The process will be scaled from 1kg to 50kg which will provide enough material for Battery Resourcers LLC to have its material independently tested. In addition to recovering active cathode materials from spent lithium ion batteries, steel, copper, aluminium and plastics will also be recovered.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to demonstrate the feasibility of Battery Resourcers recycling process on a scale that has commercial significance. This will further allow Battery Resourcers to scale its process such that it can be a player in the lithium ion battery recycling market place. Battery Resourcers' ultimate goal is into increase recycling rates of spent Li-ion batteries by providing an economically viable domestic recycling option. Additionally, Battery Resourcers process produces low cost cathode materials for the battery industry which may ultimately further enable green technologies like solar, wind and electric vehicles.This SBIR Phase 1 award proposes to scale the Battery Resourcers recycling process from 50kg to 0.5 tons of spent Li-ion batteries. The proposed research focuses on process speed, safety and the quality of the recovered materials. Rate limiting steps in Battery Resourcers recycling process will be studied with an effort to improve process speed. Specifically, Battery Resourcers will look at new filtering methods for the solutions generated in its process. A method to safety shred Li-ion batteries is examined by controlling the atmosphere and removing the batteries' stored energy. Finally, the production of quality cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries is scaled from 50kg to 0.5 tons. Battery Resourcers' goal is to produce commercial quality cathode powder on a scale that matters to industry.