The US government is providing $44.8 million in funding to support eight research projects investigating ways to lower the costs of recycling electric vehicle (EV) batteries and components. The project aims to eventually lower the cost of EVs.
With more than four million EVs sold in the US since 2021, the lithium battery market is expected to increase by tenfold by the end of the decade.
According to the US Department of Energy (DoE), this makes it essential that investments are made to accelerate the development of a resilient domestic supply chain for high-capacity batteries.
The eight projects, which will be carried out across the US, have been selected by the DoE’s Vehicle Technology Office. They will cover two areas: improving the economics of transportation, dismantling, and processing of EV batteries; and increasing the recycling of EV battery accessory components.
The eight projects include Caterpillar in Illinois, which is developing a new or improved battery pack for heavy vehicle batteries that will result in a more efficient dismantling process, and General Motors in Michigan, which is developing and demonstrating an automatic sorting system for end-of-life EV batteries to develop techniques that can be used by vehicle recyclers, dealers, and mechanic shops.
The University of Akron, Ohio, will research the elimination of the flow of plastics and polymers from end-of-life EV battery packs reaching landfills and recycling them for use as feedstock for new batteries.
“Finding new life for used batteries will significantly reduce pollution and our reliance on other nations while lowering costs and supporting the clean energy transition,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. The US government indicated that this latest investment builds upon funding announced during 2022 focused on advancing domestic battery recycling and reuse.
These investments also support the administration’s Justice40 Initiative which sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
The eight projects selected for this round of funding are the second phase of $200 million in total provided for EV battery recycling and part of $7 billion to support battery supply chains.
With demand growing for critical minerals used in the production of EV batteries, there have been calls for countries to mitigate their risks in relying on imports of these materials. Last month, the UK’s National Engineering Policy Centre released a report setting out ways to reduce the UK’s economy-wide critical materials footprint and mitigate some of the problems relating to the country’s dependency on imports and supply-side risks.
Filed Under: Batteries, Technology News