Lithium-ion battery recycling specialist Li-Cycle reported US$8.7 million in revenues for the quarter ended April 30, 2022, more than double the previous quarter.

While much attention is paid to the need to recycle electric vehicle (EV) batteries, stationary energy storage systems are also “playing a crucial role in the big picture of battery recycling,” Li-Cycle’s chief commercial officer has said.

Cost, complexity and carbon footprint. Earlier this month, Switzerland-headquartered Leclanché launched its new, modular energy storage system solution aimed at reducing all three of these challenging points for the industry. VP for system engineering Daniel Fohr and EMEA region sales and business development manager Cyril Carpentier speak about how and why Leclanché believe LeBlock solves some of the major concerns energy storage developers face.

Equity investors have already committed more than US$300 million to lithium battery recycler Li-Cycle’s plan to go publicly-listed through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger.

The European Union (EU) looks set to introduce the “most extensive product legislation in the world for batteries,” but its potential shortcomings include the risk that battery prices could go up and that established manufacturers from Asia might be better positioned to benefit from the rules than the new European value chain.

Lithium battery technology is rapidly enabling the electrification of transport, and of the energy sector. However, batteries themselves can often be seen as a short-lived commodity and as yet, recycling and reuse have not become major priorities in the industry. Dr Amrit Chandan, CEO of UK-headquartered Aceleron Energy discusses what it means to build a circular economy around advanced lithium-ion batteries, designed with longer lifetimes and their repurposing for second-life use in mind.

Lithium battery recycling company Li-Cycle now has capacity to recycle 10,000 tonnes a year of spent lithium-ion batteries, having just opened its Rochester, New York facility for commercial operations.

US developer GlidePath Power Solutions has signed up to use a full life-cycle management platform for the batteries it uses, including recycling and repurposing as it seeks to “resolve the recycling and re-use case upfront, not down the track”.

Guidelines for lithium-ion battery storage system decommissioning and recycling have been launched in the US by the national Energy Storage Association, while associations in European Union territories as well as the US have come together to launch an online information portal on the safe transportation.

The huge upsurge in lithium-ion battery deployment expected over the next two decades poses a particular problem: what to do with cells that have reached the end of their useful life. Stefan Hogg investigates how lithium recycling will come into its own to handle spent batteries