Pathway decisions for reuse and recycling of retired lithium-ion batteries considering economic and environmental functions

Reuse and recycling of retired electric vehicle (EV) batteries offer a sustainable waste management approach but face decision-making challenges. This study presents a strategy to optimize pathways of retired battery treatments economically and environmentally using a process-based life cycle assessment method. The strategy is applied to various reuse scenarios (energy storage systems, communication base stations, low-speed vehicles) with different capacity configurations and evaluates hydrometallurgical, pyrometallurgical, and direct recycling considering battery residual values. Results show that for the optimized pathway, LFP batteries improve profits by 58% and reduce emissions by 18% compared to hydrometallurgical recycling without reuse, while NMC batteries boost profit by 19% and reduce emissions by 18%. LFP batteries offer superior long-term benefits through reuse before recycling, despite NMC batteries having higher immediate recycling returns. The study provides an accessible evaluation framework for optimal pathway selection of retired EV batteries.

Ruifei Ma, Shengyu Tao, Xin Sun, Yifang Ren, Chongbo Sun, Guanjun Ji, Jiahe Xu, Xuecen Wang, Xuan Zhang, Qiuwei Wu, Guangmin Zhou