Development of a recycling system for lithium-ion-based battery systems from electric vehicle drives

In cooperation with the industrial project partners Saubermacher and MAGNA STEYR Battery Systems a project called LIBRES was initiated at the Technical University of Leoben. LIBRES focuses on developing a safety relevant, economic and complete recycling process for lithium ion batteries (LIB) including the entire life of LIBs from production to use and from collection, transport and storage to recycling and material recovery.

Part of LIBRES is an environmental assessment study with help of a Life Cycle Analysis, which determines the environmental impact of material recovery to recycling process.

The objectives of the project include, among others:

• Development of a recycling process
• Development of appropriate disassembly steps for various energy storage systems
• Attaining a high material recycling rate
• Consideration of safety relevant aspects
• Establishing the most efficient thermal and other treatment methods for LIB
• Calculation of recycling efficiency for LIBs from traction batteries