Reverse loops
This section considers all the reverse loops on the conceptual LIB materials value chain diagram (shown below). These start as soon as the LIBs come into use.
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Long-life, repair and redistribution
Keeping products and components in use is the highest value CE action (sometimes called ‘prolong’).
The potential for a long product life is set up in manufacturing (by good eco-design) but also depends very much on user behaviour. Broken items can be repaired to extend their lifespan and products no longer needed by one user can be passed on (redistributed) to others (Maximise the value). There may be a trade-off between LIB design that promotes longer life versus design for recycling (Design for longer life recycle / modular).
Intensifying use
Intensifying use of materials is another good circular economy strategy.
Sharing resources by using EV car clubs, taxis, or buses makes the LIBs work for more of the time and could deliver the required transport with fewer vehicles and thus lower material requirements. Shared ownership and greater use of public transport has not really taken off yet though (Take the bus).
Product service models, where LIBs are leased rather than purchased outright can encourage re-use. For example, Nio cars in China have a LIB leasing model that uses battery swop stations, used rather like fuel stations. LIB leasing without any battery swop possibilities has not gained favour for EVs and leasing is mainly of the whole EV (Resource-as-a-service).
All cars including EVs and their LIBs, spend most of their time parked. Vehicle-to-grid flexibility and energy storage is one way to use this stationery capacity and thus maximise use of the LIB. ‘V1G’ schemes make it possible to control the time and magnitude of charging power from the power source to the EV and V2G schemes enable energy in the EV LIBs to go back to the grid when needed, V2H connects to a home network and V2V creates a community of shared vehicle charging (Tan et al., 20161). This is a strategy that would merit more development, especially now that battery life seems to be less of a concern and LIBs may well have longer lifespans than the EVs they are fitted into (Design for longer life recycle / modular).
Repurposing of LIBs in secondary storage
Even when a LIB is no longer has good enough storage capacity to use in an EV, it may still be useful for stationary energy storage. (Ahuja et al. 20202) (Maximise the value). This keeps the material in a 'high value' reverse loop. There may well be advantage to sending LFP LIBs to secondary storage applications leaving the NMC chemistry LIBs with their valuable metals to be recycled.
Remanufacture
The industrial process of retaining the quality, functionality, and standards of the product or component as comparable to a new product or component. This usually involves disassembly and extensive operations. Quality checks are like those for a new product or component. The degree of change to the system application would be more extensive. The product will be offered a warranty like that of a new product (Maximise the value). Remanufacture is usually more resource efficient than recycling but generally much less well-developed in terms of technology and business models.
Recycling
Capturing materials before they go to waste by recycling them from products, components and manufacturing scrap is an essential part of the circular economy.
Recycling is sometimes called the ‘loop of last resort’ because it is the key step that captures materials before they go to waste but the lowest value action in the CE hierarchy. Recycling helps diversity of supply of LIB materials and reduces primary materials usage. If done in the right way, recycling also reduces the carbon footprint compared to mining primary raw materials. Globally, the IEA calculates recycling could reduce new mine development needs by 40% for cobalt, and by 25% for lithium by 2050 (IEA, 20243).
Primary Li production in the UK could be further augmented by secondary sources, with estimates of 13kt to 39kt Li from EoL recycling in 2045 (Petavratzi et al. pers comm4). By 2045 the Li available from end of life (EoL) EVs equals the UK LIB demand for EVs manufactured in the UK, according to the modelling done in Met4Tech.
The EU Battery regulations state that by 2030, LIBs placed on the market in the EU must contain at least 12% recycled Co and 4% recycled Li and by 2035 this must rise to 20% recycled Co and 10% Li. Met4Tech analysis indicates that even with a 100% recycling efficiency, the targets for 2030 and 2035 are unachievable from UK EoL recycling due to insufficient stock availability9. Manufacturing waste could add to this total but it looks likely that UK LIB manufacturers will need to source recycled materials from overseas.
Recyling of LIBs is complex, not least because of the many different chemistries and the rapidly changing technologies ((Changing battery chemistry), Minviro, 202410, Petavratzi et al., 202411).
There are also many different forms of recycling. At the moment, EoL LIBs are shredded and then sent overseas to a smelter (pyrometallugy) to be processed. This only recovers metals such as Co and Ni but not Li. Companies aiming to recycle LIBs in the UK will use chemical (hydrometallurgy) techniques that will recover Li and the other metals. The most valuable components are Co and Ni, and LFP LIBs are less financially attractive to recycle.
There are many ways to improve on basic hydrometallurgy techniques by more careful manufacturing ready for recycling (eco-design) and cleverer recycling technologies (Harper et al., 20235) (Not how many but how recycled). Met4Tech researchers have published a Toolbox with examples (Zante et al., 20246). Examples include debondable adhesives that make it easier to dissemble components and ultrasound debondable interfaces to aid cell disassembly. At the larger scale of LIB pack and module level though, good methods to take the LIB structures apart are hard to find because of the need for LIBs to be robust in multiple situations (Mulcahy et al., 20227).
One thing that can be done immediately to improve recycling outcomes is to link LIB recycling operations with battery diagnostics and business to business match-making platforms for buyers and sellers so that good decisions are taken regarding re-use, repurposing, remanufacture or recycling. There is a good example of this in Germany (Circunomics gmbh, 20258).
Although recycling companies are likely to be sited close to the source of the EoL LIBs, a closed loop in which the exact atoms of lithium are recycled in the UK is not realistic though because many of the cars are likely to be exported abroad (Petavratzi et al.9). There are several start-ups aiming to recycle LIB materials and getting the balance right so that there are enough but not too many companies, who can profit from the types of LIBs available for recycling and have the agility to respond to changes in battery chemistry might be a challenge.
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8. https://www.circunomics.com/ Accessed 23.2.2025.
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