REBLEND: Recovering battery-grade materials from upgraded black mass to enable remanufacturing of automotive battery products in the UK

REBLEND：从升级后的黑色物质中回收电池级材料，以实现英国汽车电池产品的再制造

• 批准号: 10043366
• 金额: $ 231.45万
• 依托单位: ECOSHRED LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10043366
• 关键词: REBLEND; Recovering; battery; grade; materials

Despite being a cornerstone of the UK's industrial and energy-transition strategy, the UK automotive **Lithium-Ion Battery** **(LIB)** production industry faces two existential threats:* **LIBs require vast amounts of critical raw materials, especially the Cathode Active Materials (CAMs) cobalt, nickel and lithium** (175kt needed by 2035). CAMs are all sourced from overseas, creating critical security of supply issues.* OEMs and LIB manufacturers who are responsible for end-of-life (EoL) batteries **lack LIB recycling infrastructure**. Consequently, there is a **growing mountain of automotive LIB waste** (~6.6Mt by 2030) that must be exported, resulting in loss of value to the UK (CAMs worth £1.2bn by 2030).Automotive LIBs can be reused or recycled to deal responsibly with battery-waste and provide a source of battery-grade materials. However, commercial, SotA recycling processes are inefficient and costly, do not produce raw materials of sufficient quality for reuse in automotive batteries, and are only available overseas.Currently, UK battery manufacturers and collectors are:* Losing the value of the CAMs (~£1.2bn by 2030);* Paying European/Asian companies to dispose of batteries;* Increasing reliance on insecure primary material extraction and processing supply lines.REBLEND aims to develop the core processes and capabilities for a UK-based automotive battery recycling industry that can recover CAMs from production scrap and EoL automotive and consumer batteries for reuse in automotive batteries.REBLEND will demonstrate three processes for recovering the most expensive CAMs, cobalt, nickel and lithium through:1. Combining novel delamination, magnetic, electrostatic and membrane separation techniques to produce separated and \>89% pure anodic and \>94% pure cathodic black mass from shredded EoL LIBs (compared to <89% pure mixed black mass from best-in-class competitor) enabling battery-grade CAM recovery for £6/kg.2. Direct cathode reclamation from production scrap (containing nickel & cobalt) removing the need for hydro-metallurgy and enabling direct reuse in new cells.3. Processing coarse shredded material (2-6mm) using electrostatic and magnetic separation, preventing carcinogenic dust formation, significantly reducing H&S risks for workers.Key areas of innovation in the project are:* Optimisation of LIB shredding parameters to reduce undesirable reactions that limit recovery of materials.* Use of world-leading polymeric nanocomposite membrane technology to achieve zero process waste and extract lithium.* Optimisation of innovative electrostatic and magnetic separation techniques and (for the first time) delamination of electrode and current-collector to enable cost-effective recovery of high-purity CAM recyclates at pilot-scale (10kg batches).* Direct recycling techniques for cathode reclamation.

尽管是英国工业和能源转型战略的基石，英国汽车**锂离子电池** **(LIB)** 生产行业面临着两个生存威胁：* **LIB 需要大量关键原材料特别是阴极活性材料 (CAM) 钴、镍和锂**（到 2035 年需要 175kt CAM）均来自海外，造成了严重的供应安全问题。*负责报废 (EoL) 电池的 OEM 和 LIB 制造商**缺乏经过测试的 LIB 回收基础设施**，**汽车 LIB 废物**不断增加（到 2030 年约为 6.6 吨）。出口，导致英国价值损失（到 2030 年，CAM 价值 12 亿英镑）。汽车 LIB 可以重复使用或回收，以负责任地处理电池废物，并提供然而，商业化的 SotA 回收工艺效率低下且成本高昂，无法生产足够质量的原材料用于汽车电池的再利用，并且只能在海外获得。目前，英国电池制造商和收集商包括：* CAM 的价值损失（到 2030 年约 12 亿英镑）；* 向欧洲/亚洲公司支付处理电池费用；* 日益依赖不安全的初级材料提取和加工供应线。REBLEND 旨在为英国汽车电池回收行业开发核心流程和能力，该行业可以从生产废料以及报废汽车和消费电池中回收 CAM，以便在汽车电池中重新使用。REBLEND 将展示回收最昂贵的 CAM（钴、镍和钴）的三种流程。锂通过：1. 结合新颖的分层、磁性、静电和膜分离技术，从切碎中产生分离的>89% 纯阳极和>94% 纯阴极黑色物质。 EoL LIB（与同类最佳竞争对手的 <89% 纯混合黑色物质相比）能够以 6 英镑/kg 的价格直接回收电池级 CAM。2，无需进行废品回收。湿法冶金并可在新电池中直接重复利用。3. 使用静电和磁力分离处理粗碎材料（2-6mm），防止致癌粉尘形成，显着降低 H&S 风险该项目的关键创新领域是：* 优化锂离子电池粉碎参数，以减少限制材料回收的不良反应。* 采用世界领先的聚合物纳米复合膜技术，实现零工艺废物并提取锂。* 创新优化静电和磁力分离技术以及（首次）电极和集电器分层，以实现中试规模（10公斤）经济高效地回收高纯度 CAM 回收物批次）。* 用于阴极回收的直接回收技术。