Environmental

impacts, pollution
sources and
pathways of
spent lithium-ion
batteries
Class CC01_Group 11:
Presentation
● Introduction
Contents
● Main achievements
● Challenges and Solutions
of Spent Batteries Disposal
and Five Significant
Results
● Future Trends
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION Impact of
Current status increasing LIBS
• Crucial support for the
production
adoption of renewable • Impact on the
energy environment
• In 2009, nearly 25.6 GW h • Increase the amount of
(about 134 000 tons) of LIB waste from spent LIBS
energy storage capacity • Created concerns over
was placed on the global the availability of some
market and increased to critical metals used to
Interesting points
218 GW h in 2019 Reason
produce for study
LIBs
• The possible emission • Concern over the
routes and pollution environment, hazards
pathways are evaluated and human health
• Recognized possible impacted by LIBs
hazards due to different disposal
battery treatment and • The data on the
disposal practices environmental impact of
• Identified the knowledge EoL LIBs is extremely
gaps in LIBs disposal limited
KEY
ACHIEVEMEN
TS
Key
achievements
● Review records, identify and categorize the environmental impacts, sources,
and pollution pathways of spent LIBs
● Highlight the drawbacks of the disposal practices and discuss the threats
associated with them
● Prove that toxicity of the battery material is a direct threat to organisms on
various trophic levels as well as direct threats to human health.
● Finally, the paper discusses some of the main knowledge gaps for future
assessments.

=> Offers a comprehensive overview of the threats and hazards

that need to be managed to ensure the design and

implementation of safe disposal and processing options for
spent LIBs
CHALLENGES AND
SOLUTIONS OF SPENT
●
BATTERY DISPOSAL
Recycling
● Landfill
● Illegal disposal and processing
● Emission to air
● Emission to soil and water
Recycle
Recycle

Reserves
- LIBs are now considered a strategically valuable waste stream, containing
relatively valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel, or lithium.
=> There are significant values, especially in the light of shrinking supply
of critical materials
Recycle
However, It is important to note that crude oil is unrecoverable, but
Lithium can be recovered
- In 2018, it is estimated that 97000 tons of LIBs were recycled globally ( including
LIBs from EVs and BESS applications). In there, 67,000 were processed in China and
18,000 in South Korea.
- Currently, China is the largest consumer and producer of LIBs and recycling of
spent LIBs. By 2050, recycling might account for 60% of the lithium demand for
LIBs generated in China.
=> The way to be less dependent on raw mining elsewhere is to protect
the country’s small reserves.
Recycle
Low recovery 33 23
Percentage recovery of some

40%
rate 30% %materials% 5%

Graphit
Battery materials Nickel Cobalt Lithium e
Only less than 40% of
the total battery
materials actually Example of materials recovered in China
can be recycled resulting in economic losses in 2016
under the current
materials flow
scheme
Recycle
Reasons for low recovery percentage
-The free discharge of valuable materials ( from human awareness)
-Lack of recycling infrastructure around the world
-Low Consumer Engagement, lack of strict regulations
lobal top 10 Lithium-ion battery Recycling Companies
ources: Blackridge Research & Consulting

Found
Name Location
ed
American Battery Technology Reno, Nevada, United States 2011
Surrey, British Columbia,
American Mangnese Inc. 1987
Canada
Ecobat Dallas, Texas, United States 1994
Ganfeng Lithium Group
Xinyu, Jiangxi Province, China 2000
Co.Ltd
LG Energy Solution Ltd. Seoul, South Korea 2019
Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. Toronto, Ontario, Canada 2016
Lithion Recycling Inc. Montreal, Quebec, Canada 2018
Redwood Materials Carson, Nevada, United States 2017
Retriev Technologies Inc. Ohio, United States 1984
Umicore N.V Brussels, Belgium 1989
Recycle
Main methods
Pyrometallurgy: employs smelting in a high-temperature process, which usually involves
burning and subsequent separation to produce a mixed metal alloy of Co, Cu, Fe, and Ni
( especially to cobalt-rich batteries)
Hydrometallurgy: recovers the desired metals from cathode material via leaching in an
acidic or basic aqueous solution
Direct recycling: involves the direct re-use of the cathode and/or anode material from the
electrodes of spent LIBs after reconditioning.
Other alternative technologies: Plasma smelting technology, bioleaching, and redox
targeting-based material.
The final process should involve a combination of various techniques with a well-defined
material flow chart to ensure the highest efficiency of recycling.
Recycle
Potential Environmental Impacts from LIB Recycling
- Pyrometallurgy: Greenhouse effects, black mass ( a sludgy mixture of lithium,
manganese, and cobalt) from the intermittent product.
- Plasma smelting: quality of the recycled materials, aluminum recovery, and adopting a
battery waste improvement process
=> Global warming, carcinogenic, ozone layer depletion, eutrophication.
Directing method: generation of large amounts of waste byproducts, and toxic chemicals.
=> Limited material recovery
- Hydrometallurgy: Far less Greenhouse effects but requires supplementary wastewater
treatment, mainly from acid
=> Soil acidification, water pollution. => High cost, but the best options for
Green Chem.
Landfilling
Landfilling
Landfilling is the main method of disposing of solid waste – with the
rates of deposition of municipal waste ranging from 53% in the USA,
79% in China, and 70 to 94% in Malaysia. Of these, around 4%
includes electronic waste (e-waste), often containing batteries.

- Therefore, in the short-term at least, it is certain that LIBs (especially

those from small portable devices) will be buried underground. Yet, in
the long term, it is more likely they will follow the recovery route is
better than landfilling
.
Landfilling
Landfill fires

- Landfill fires are undesirable but unfortunately quite frequent

- There are two types of fire, surface and subsurface (cavity): and in most cases, they are
due to the spontaneous auto-ignition of methane (CH4).

- Cavity fires: a form of combustion (pyrolysis) where the thermal reaction takes place
under anoxic conditions deep below the landfill surface

=>These are difficult to detect and may create large voids in the landfill, which
can cause the landfill surface to cave in
Landfilling
Landfill fires

- Landfill fires caused by (usually small) LIBs are a major

emerging problem:

+ Produce a mixture of toxic gases and smoke: polycyclic

aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins/furans, volatile
organic compounds (VOCs), heavy metals polychlorinated
biphenyls or organochlorine pesticides and finally, particulate
matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter < 2.5.

+ Subsurface fires favor the generation of harmful gases

such as CO, SO2, or H2S

=>The smoke can carry particulate matter and

chemicals to further distances, raising the
concentrations of heavy metals and Chemical Oxygen
Landfilling
Solution for landfilling

Avoiding battery landfilling or at least neutralization/immobilization of hazardous content:

1/ Complete discharging-no excess of the energy, immobilization of copper on aluminum foil

2/ Removal of the flammable electrolyte from the battery – reduced fire risk, formation of
hazardous gasses and vapor cloud explosion

3/ Using additional liners (bentonite clay etc.) capable of binding heavy metals – no
transport through landfill layers
Illegal
Disposal And
Processing
Illegal Disposal And Processing
There is a potential to make a profit there are attempts to bypass official routes
of making business.

- As the recycling of LIBs will be profitable at least to some degree, there is a big chance
that some illegal processing will occur, as it happened for waste electronic equipment

Þ Result in pollution surrounding the area, poor working conditions for workers,
and worsening their health.
Illegal Disposal And Processing
Moreover, the burden of illegal processing will be mostly put on emerging economies due to
the high costs of labor, lack of recycling facilities, and strict environmental laws in
developed countries. For example, the export of e-waste is facilitated by rich and developed
nations to poor and developing ones.

=> 2/3 of global e-waste collected in 2014 was exported, half of it was illegal.
This resulted in over 3 million tons of e-waste exported outside of regulated
schemes

=> No guarantee that exported LIBs will be recycled or processed in regulated,

safe, and environmentally friendly ways
Illegal Disposal And Processing
Impacts

- Lead-acid battery informal processing can highlight potential issues for LIBs in the future.
For instance, estimates have shown that there could be 10000-30000 informal lead-acid
battery recyclers in 90 low and middle-income countries → Threats to up to 17 million
people are significantly above national safety limits.

Such sites elevate levels of lead in soils and plants in China, Serbia, Australia, and India =>
causing higher concentrations of the metal in children’s blood

- Heavy metals (i.e. lead or cadmium) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the soils or
watercourses surrounding such centers are significantly above national safety limits. Cobalt,
copper, and nickel are also heavy metals included in LIBs that might cause hazards if LIBs
are inappropriately treated

=> The contamination of soil, air, and water and a serious impact on human
Emission to
Air
Emission to Air
Impacts

- Fine particles may be released from LIBs to the air during disassembly and recycling
processes are considered as a part of the total dust emissions.

- Dust can enter the respiratory system causing adverse health effects such as
cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, carcinogenicity, or disruption of the
endocrine system.

- During the disassembly and material recovery of LIBs, shredding is the main mechanical
processing option that could generate dust emissions.

- Particles and chemicals released from batteries may aggregate together in the
atmosphere, be transported on large distances, and settle down causing for example soil
pollution.

- The potential negative effect of three battery materials: lithium iron phosphate (LFP),
Emission to
Soil and
Water
Emission to Soil and Water
Impacts

- The content of metals in batteries depends upon their design and size, as well
as their chemistry

- These figures translate to tens of kilograms of such materials in EV packs that

potentially may be released to the environment if improperly disposed of, representing a
series of threats to human health and the environment.

- Heavy metals from LIBs may also enter the natural environment due to materials
recovery processes, as well as legal and illegal disposal routes. Due to the lack of valid
data concerning the recycling of LIBs, for analytical purposes, the research considers
other well-established processing of automotive batteries. Critical analysis of the lead-
acid batteries recovery reveals that large quantities of potentially toxic slag have to be
dealt with. In most countries, such wastes are often disposed of in waste dumps that
may lack properly designed engineered landfills, especially in emerging economies.
FUTURE TRENDS
● There are lots of unknowns, incomplete
data, not yet researched specific topics,
or even contradictory results that need
to be clarified to mitigate any negative
impact of spent batteries.
● Probing the following questions on the
environmental impacts of spent LIBs
that might help to manage these better
in the future
Future Trends
Questions to help manage environmental impacts

• What are the current and prospective volumes of spent LIBs?

• How much spent batteries reach the relevant disposal stream?

• Where spent batteries will be processed and abandoned?

• In what form: as a whole, partitioned, shredded, etc. LIBs will be processed abandoned?

• What is the impact of changing chemistries on the waste streams in terms of needed
technology but also in terms of the life span?

• What, how, where, and in which volumes are hazards released from the spent batteries?
Future Trends
Questions to help manage environmental impacts

• What is the prevalence and distribution of battery pollutants once being released into
the natural environment?

• What are the circulation and interactions of battery pollutants among the land–water–air-
emission pathways and the wildlife nexus?

• What is the (eco)toxicity and (bio)accumulation of LIBs materials to various organisms

and humans?

• How should or would environmental studies support the design and disposal of spent
LIBs?

The real data should be supported by various Life Cycle Assessments

methodology, cost-benefit studies, and the use of more modeling in the
Future Trends
Demand for new LIBs leads to the number of spent batteries increase

This quantity must be appropriately managed and controlled across the various
disposal routes.

- Collection of spent and ‘‘second-life’’ large batteries, might be linked with some business
model e.g. sale of the car but the lease of battery – then the responsibility is on the
dealer/seller or can be governed by local councils with i.e. specialized collection center –
responsibility on the user.

- It is necessary to develop innovative technologies to lower the cost of material recovery

and reduce the environmental impacts of this industry.

- Moreover, illegal disposal and informal processing that leads to serious pollution must be
prevented.

New LIBs should be designed for recycling meaning the materials can be easy to
CONCLUSION
S
• There is no doubt that the urgent need to decarbonize transportation puts LIBs at the
forefront of the action.

• However, the growing stream of spent LIBs would impose an enormous threat to the
natural environment and human health, as batteries contain hazardous materials.

• In this review, the current, possible and likely waste management practices of LIBs were
identified – from collection and recycling to landfilling.

• Currently, landfilling is the most common practice but there is a growing share of
recycling.

• The fire and explosion incidents are currently the most common events that have been
evidenced by real-life incidents. Leaching is another pollution pathway that will co-
dominate in the future.