Looming battery tsunami as lithium-ion bricks set to increase tenfold by 2030

There is a looming battery tsunami as globally, people toss out more than 500,000 tons of lithium batteries today. And with the world transitioning to an electric economy, its appetite for lithium-ion bricks is projected to increase tenfold by 2030.

As lithium-ion batteries stand poised to jump from handheld devices into cars, trucks and homes, entrepreneurs and academics are racing to find a way to reuse it. Various reports and research highlights that startups around the world are developing technology to rejuvenate dead batteries without breaking them down fully.

Tim Johnston, co-founder and executive chairman of Li-Cycle, told CNBC that we are spending money making batteries, making chemicals, and then we are burning them at the end of the cycle. “That’s not right,” he observed. Ajay Kochhar, co-founder and president of Li-Cycle, pointed out that most of that explosion will be driven by electric vehicles, which carry batteries weighing more than 1,000 pounds. “We are the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Li-Cycle creates a secondary supply of critical battery metals to meet the increasing demand, while also ensuring a sustainable future for the planet. The company has two spokes running, one in Ontario, Canada and one in Rochester, New York, which can break apart a combined 10,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries each year. Li-Cycle had recently announced plans to build their first hub which will be able to separate 25,000 tons of black mass (from 65,000 tons of batteries) annually into lithium, cobalt, nickle and other elements starting in late 2022.

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But with smartphone and tablet devices users set to increase further, along with the adoption of electric vehicles, there is indeed a looming battery tsunami. Reports highlight that chemical structure of batteries shifts from year to year, for instance, Panasonic slashed the cobalt content in Tesla batteries by 60 per cent between 2012 and 2018. Experts believe these changes require continuously tweaking the recycling process while also making it less lucrative.