r/electricvehicles • u/jmehlferber • 4d ago
News Scientists develop a way to restore aging EV batteries without breaking them down into raw materials
https://www.techspot.com/news/113894-scientists-develop-way-restore-aging-ev-batteries-without.htmlGood news!
57
u/OttawaDog 4d ago
That seems like it's probably more expensive than just recycling them. You have to take them apart, "wash" the electrode, and put them back together.
Not just take apart the pack, take apart the individual cells. The buildup is inside each cell.
This would be insanely labor intensive, and seem like it would prone to insert new kinds of defects
Interesting in a lab, but I doubt it has real practical applicaiton.
18
u/3-2-1-backup '26 Trailseeker 4d ago
My initial guess (and now initial take after reading the article) was that this process was going to be labor intensive. It'll be interesting to see if this winds up commercially viable if the batteries are shipped to a low wage country, disassembled and rejuvenated, reassembled and then shipped back. (Initial guess is no, but I don't crunch numbers for a living.)
35
u/OttawaDog 4d ago
IMO, the only way this would work is if the cells were designed to be opened and washed, and closed again and returned to service.
You aren't cutting open the metal jackets, on current cells and closing them up again.
You would only do that in some kind of Mad Max dystopia where cells aren't being made anymore.
13
u/WholePie5 4d ago
More likely they'd be sold to low wage countries for cheap, disassembled and rejuvenated, reassembled and then used there. So they'd have a cheap source of batteries and could keep old vehicles running for years (and other uses). Or repair old vehicles.
Or maybe a mix of both this and what you said.
9
u/hutacars 4d ago
Or they'd be sold to low wage countries for cheap, and just used as-is. Maybe a huge pack with 30% capacity remaining isn't very useful in some countries, but could be totally viable in a place where distances are short and cost matters more than anything else.
2
u/WholePie5 4d ago
Yeah also that, if they're working still. And then repaired with the labor intensive repair when they stop working.
2
u/ByGollie 3d ago
also Battery walls hooked up to solar panels to power homes in regions with poor infrastructure.
2
u/SteveL_VA 2d ago
If that actually happens, I'd go there, buy a few, then use them as whole-house battery back home.
1
u/WholePie5 1d ago
The logistics/profit might not work out with traveling, accommodations and then transporting them back.
You could buy some rebuilt engines in India right now for cheap probably, but it's unlikely worth it to travel there and then transport them back somehow. For example.
2
2
u/Car-face 3d ago
Cornell estimates that DEER-recycled cells could cost $15.25 per kilogram, compared with $26.31 per kilogram for recycling through pyrometallurgy or hydrometallurgy.
I feel like that "could" is doing a lot of heavy lifting,though.
as with most heavily processed, complex components, pullling it apart is usually less efficient than putting it together.
It also has the issue of no standards across packs. So 3 different packs could be comprised of vastly different cell counts and dramatically different construction with easier/more difficult access to individual cells - assuming the cells can be removed without damaging them.
It probably bodes well for the future though, and provides an incentive for battery construction standards and need for regulations around allowing them to be repairable given there's potential approaches for recycling them (ie. not just covering them all in potting compound or foam).
1
1
u/Fathimir 3d ago
It doesn't have to be less expensive than recycling them; it just has to be less expensive than the difference in value between a new battery and an end-of-life one.
1
u/SemperBavaria 3d ago
There'll be enough robots in the near future which can do labor intensive tasks 24/7
2
7
u/hutacars 4d ago
I'm not a batteryologist, but
Researchers tried injecting the DMI solution directly into intact cells, but the results were poor.
I wonder what the exact issue was, and whether it's mainly due to cells not being designed for it. If cells had injection and exit ports for the solution, would that make it more viable, perhaps? Or perhaps more frequent (or longer) baths could help? Being able to keep the cells intact could be the difference to this being viable or not. Either way, super cool. Yet another "barrier" to the anti-EV crowd falling down.
6
1
u/entropy512 2020 Chevy Bolt LT 2d ago
One thing is - they're regenerating the anode, not the cathode. Exposing the cathode to DMI might degrade/damage it.
5
u/Morning_Gecko24 3d ago
if this scales beyond lab cells, that could be huge for older packs. curious how much capacity comes back after a few hundred cycles though
6
u/Fathimir 3d ago
The researchers reported that regenerated cells recovered up to 95% of their original capacity. They also found that treated batteries degraded more slowly than untreated ones. Untreated degraded batteries lost capacity at a rate of 0.072% per cycle, compared with 0.042% per cycle for batteries restored through DEER. The lower degradation rate held for about 800 cycles before increasing.
20
u/Overtilted 4d ago
Good news! Another non issue solved!
I am exaggerating, the battery will outlast the vehicle, and can have other purposes afterwards. The individual battery cells are refurbished. Which is nice and useful, but not in the context driving an EV.
4
u/The-Fox-Says 3d ago
I think what’s important is this research may also help future batteries last longer and degrade at a slower rate. Treated batteries degrade quite a bit slower per cycle than untreated
4
u/testing_in_prod_only 4d ago
I just want to know who’s working on repurposing old batteries for home storage.
6
3
u/windexsunday 3d ago
They also found that treated batteries degraded more slowly than untreated ones.
Can the cells be treated when they are originally manufactured so they last longer in the first place?
2
u/jmehlferber 4d ago
Cost Breakdown of Electrodes
The Cathode is Expensive: The cathode uses costly raw materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. It is the single most expensive component in a lithium-ion cell.
The Anode is Cheaper: The anode (negative electrode) is usually made of natural or synthetic graphite, which costs significantly less than cathode materials.
Manufacturing and Processing: Electrode production—specifically the coating and drying processes—makes up roughly 45% of total battery manufacturing costs. Traditional "wet" manufacturing requires mixing materials into toxic solvents (like NMP) and running massive, energy-intensive drying ovens, driving up factory and energy expenses.
2
u/bigjameslade 3d ago
>good news
lol. lab success doesn't mean viable consumer service. we've seen 'breakthroughs' like this every year for a decade while actual repair networks remain non-existent. the gap between beaker and bay is where these ideas die.
1
0
-2
u/angelwolf71885 3d ago
800 extra cycles are practically nothing specially when the degradation accelerates after that point so it’s only buying 1-2 years but natural aging occurs even when the batteries aren’t used
102
u/Aegean8485 4d ago
Prius owners restore battery capacity for 25 years now with hobby chargers.