The US government is providing $44.8 million in funding to support eight research projects that will investigate ways to lower the costs of recycling electric vehicle (EV) batteries and components. The aim of the projects is to eventually lower the cost of these vehicles.
With more than four million EVs sold in the US since the since 2021, the growing demand is expected to increase the size of the lithium battery market five to ten-fold by the end of the decade. This makes it essential that investments are made to accelerate the development of a resilient domestic supply chain for high-capacity batteries, the US Department of Energy (DoE) said.
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 do research to eliminate the flow of plastics and polymers from end-of-life electric vehicle battery packs reaching landfill, as well as recycling them for use as feedstock for new batteries.
Commenting on the development US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said: “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.”
The US government said 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 electric drive vehicle battery recycling and part of $7 billion to support battery supply chains.
With demand growing for the 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 halve the UK’s ‘economy-wide critical materials footprint’, and potentially mitigate some of the problems relating to the country's dependency on imports and supply-side risks.
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