A. Baby, J.R. Elias, Q. Dai, J.S. Spangenberger
Argonne National Laboratory,
United States
Keywords: battery energy storage systems, sodium-ion battery, recycling, decommissioning, end-of-life, technoeconomic analysis
Summary:
Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) span a wide range of chemistries from lead-acid to advanced lithium-ion and flow-batteries. Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are increasingly being viewed as viable alternatives to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for large-scale energy storage as they decrease the U.S. dependence on foreign-sourced critical materials. SIBs use cheap and abundant raw materials resilient to supply chain fluctuations while their chemistry derives heavily from existing LIB technologies. These advantages accelerate their scale-up by decreasing R&D costs. Their inherently low flammability is a key safety advantage, and their lower energy density is acceptable for BESSs where size and weight are typically not constraints. Understandably, SIB commercialization is expected to ramp up this decade, and SIB BESSs are a primary focus. However, materials recoverable from SIBs at end-of-life (EOL) may have lower economic value than comparable LIBs, making recycling less attractive and complicating EOL management. Hence, a proactive assessment of EOL management is important in ushering this emerging technology into a futuristic economy that supersedes the rampant supply chain challenges associated with critical materials. EOL management of BESSs involves the decommissioning of batteries and auxiliary equipment, their transportation, and ultimately, material recovery and recycling. This complexity warrants multiple simultaneous considerations. We have developed a user-friendly online tool named EverBESS to evaluate BESS EOL management and design efficient strategies to maximize material recovery and economic viability, while optimizing EOL logistics to minimize costs. Identifying potential revenue streams and hotspots to decrease recycling costs is critical to achieving long term economic viability for SIBs. Thus, we leverage our expertise with the EverBatt model for LIB recycling to estimate EOL management costs for SIBs recycled through hydrometallurgical methods. Hydrometallurgical recycling of LIBs focuses on the recovery of valuable metals like Ni, Co, and Li from EOL batteries. Some SIB chemistries may also contain smaller quantities of Ni and/or Co, for which these techniques can be adapted. However, our preliminary analysis of hydrometallurgical SIB recycling suggests that since many SIBs use cheaper metals, the recycling revenue would be minimal. focuses, emerging direct recycling strategies producing recycled cathode active material (CAM) may be economically viable due to the focus on repairing the cathode structure instead of breaking the cathode material down into its constituents. In this presentation, we will compare hydrometallurgical recycling of different SIB CAM chemistries (layered oxides and beyond) through the EverBatt framework. In addition, we consider the costs and revenues from the EOL management of other components using EverBESS, to provide a more holistic understanding of the economic feasibility of SIB recycling. Retrieving and reusing them is pivotal to eventually converting EOL products into a robust secondary raw-material stream. Our work will help a wide range of audiences, from academic researchers assessing the scalability of novel recycling approaches and developing new SIB designs and chemistries, to industrial stakeholders minimizing EOL management costs to make SIB BESSs competitive and affordable.