Empa and Kyburz aim to recycle batteries in a resource-efficient way

The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and Kyburz Switzerland AG, a Freienstein-based company for mobility and transport solutions, have agreed to cooperate on a project to recycle lithium ion batteries. According to a federal government press release, the aim is to recover materials in as resource-efficient and clean a way as possible. To this end, Empa and Kyburz, an electric vehicle manufacturer based in the canton of Zurich, have set up a pilot facility in which end-of-life batteries will be broken down into their components and these will then be reintroduced into the production cycle. Unlike conventional processes in which old batteries are shredded and the reusable materials are separated using thermal and wet chemical processes, the new technology will dissemble the batteries into their individual components in a step-by-step process.

“In the type of battery we are currently recycling, the cathode, separator and anode are installed in several layers in a plastic casing,” explains Empa researcher Andrin Büchel from the Technology and Society laboratory. By skilfully unrolling the separator, the cathodes and the anodes (metal foils coated with particles that allow lithium ions to be stored) are sorted into two separate containers. “At the end of the recycling process, we get back the casing, the separator, the aluminum and copper foils, and the electrode materials, all cleanly separated,” says Büchel.

The participating research partners call this new process “direct recycling”. In a further phase of the pilot project, researchers are currently investigating how the recovered materials can be reintroduced into the economic cycle. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BFE) is supporting the project. ce/ww