Purification and Regeneration Integrated Materials Engineering (“PRIME”) Process for Direct Recycling and Upcycling of Lithium Cathode Materials
The Regents of the University of California, on behalf of the San Diego campus
Recipient
La Jolla, CA
Recipient Location
38th
Senate District
77th
Assembly District
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The project has made significant strides in scaling processes, improving purification techniques, and understanding fundamental material interactions. Effective electrolyte extraction, improved cathode/anode separation yields, and refined washing/annealing methods have brought direct recycling and upcycling methods closer to commercial viability. While challenges remain—particularly in controlling fluorine impurities, optimizing electrochemical performance, and establishing robust large-scale annealing conditions—the current progress provides a strong foundation for further scaling, refinement, and eventual industrial adoption. The team managed to do the following: (1) optimize to reach a high removal efficiency and electrolyte transfer efficiency; (2) successfully establishment and demonstrate the scale-up up upcycling to 1-kilogram level; (3) cathode/anode separation process of batteries at 1 kg per batch, and >10 kg per hour; (4) identify the key processing parameters that affect the separation efficiency; (5) evaluate electrochemical performance of the pristine and recycled cathode material ; (6) completing battery integration for health assessment, de-energizing and disassembly for re/upcycling purpose; and (6) scaling LIB direct recycling up to 5 kg a day with ExPost.
The Issue
Today’s Lithium-Ion batteries (LIBs) are mainly recycled via pyrometallurgy or hydrometallurgy methods, which are usually based on the destruction of the cathode material structure and the extraction of valuable elements. Both methods are lengthy, with high energy consumption and cost. Additionally, profit margins are shrinking as cathode materials move toward nickel-rich cathode materials rather than cobalt. Coupled with the fact that many battery components such as lithium salt, electrolyte, and graphite are lost during the current recycling process, researchers are working towards developing new efficient, cost-effective methods for spent LIB recycling.
Project Innovation
The project provides a cost share to the DOE-funded project “Development and Scaling Up of the Purification and Regeneration Integrated Materials Engineering ("PRIME") Process for Cathodes Direct Recycling and Upcycling” via Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) FOA DE-FOA-0002680. The project aims to develop a novel direct recycling method for spent batteries and manufacturing scraps. The active material of LIB can be directly harvested and recovered while preserving its original compound structure. A similar method has been successfully developed on different cathode chemistries such as lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (typical cathode material) and lithium iron phosphate (typical cathode material), and the electrochemical performances of the recovered materials can be the same as the pristine ones. Life cycle analysis shows that the optimized direct recovery method has significant advantages in terms of operating costs, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and energy consumption compared to currently commercialized pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy methods.
Development and scale-up of this novel direct recycling method will result in benefits such as lower costs and increased safety by improving the economics of LIB recycling as LIBs are expected to play a central role in supporting grid reliability with large fractions of variable renewable generation. Reintroducing LIB materials at the end of life and from manufacturing scraps will reduce the lifecycle environmental impacts of electric vehicles and stationary storage.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
UC San Diego's PRIME process has been shown to greatly decrease energy consumption, the utilization and need for expensive and toxic chemicals, and overall greenhouse gas emissions associated with the processing and recycling lithium batteries and cathode/anode materials. Consequently, the scale-up and commercialization of the PRIME process will result in significant environmental and affordability benefits to California ratepayers.
Environmental Sustainability
Developing and scaling up advanced direct regeneration technologies to recycle spent LIBs enables recapturing of valuable materials with lower environmental impacts compared to conventional recycling processes, reduces dependence on mined materials, and supports economic deployment of energy storage to support renewable energy and climate goals.
Affordability
As the materials cost represents 50-70% of the total battery cost in ESS and PEVs, successful recycling and regeneration of spent LIB using low-cost processes will have the potential to significantly reduce overall battery costs compared to batteries made from mined materials. The project aims to achieve an operational cost of <$100/kg for NMC and NCA cathodes and graphite anode recovery.
Reliability
The low-cost recycling and regeneration processes developed under this project will have the potential to reduce battery costs and supplement conventional supply chains to build out energy storage capacity needed to support grid reliability.
Key Project Members
Zheng Chen
Subrecipients
Argonne National Laboratory
Arizona State University
General Motors Company, LLC
UC San Diego- Jacobs School of Engineering
UC San Diego- Department of NanoEngineering
The University of Chicago
ExPost Technology, Inc.
Match Partners
Arizona State University
General Motors Company, LLC
U.S. Department of Energy
UC San Diego- Jacobs School of Engineering
UC San Diego- Department of NanoEngineering
The University of Chicago
