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Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

tech.supercarblondie.com

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Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#131

Post by JuniperMesos »

vasco wrote: post #69
cyphar wrote: post #21

It really should not be surprising that we can get very high recovery percentages from batteries -- we do not mine elemental lithium, so the processes we use for extraction are already designed to extract lithium from fairly low-purity sources. In contrast, lithium batteries are an incredibly high-purity source of lithium. The main question is when it will become cost-effective to create recycling pipelines. Lead aci…

If you've ever seen a video of Nigerians "recycling" lead batteries you'd be hard pressed to call it that. Katana in one hand, bucket on the floor, no shoes, let's go.

I confess I am not sure what role the katana plays in Nigerian lead battery recycling.

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#133

Post by Danox »

topato wrote: post #90
akssri wrote: post #62

Some geopolitical context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Senkaku_boat_collision_in... https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/comme... Japan was one of the first countries to be hit with rare-earth export-restrictions by China - going back to 2010. It seems that a lot of policy came out from this unpleasant shock, incl. the decision by Toyota to focus on developing FCEVs which would be less depend…

I’ve always been amazed at how differently the PHEV, HFC, and standard EV market ended up (well, until recently) playing out, in Japan Vs The Rest of the World. I always found the hydrogen stations here in California to be an interesting anomaly — but once you learn about the infrastructure and vehicles forced on the Japanese by gov/corp alliance, you really get a fascinating ‘alternate reality/history’ localized ent…

Japan, as an island nation, it’s only natural that Japan look for ways that can use the ocean around them, it is also natural for them to look to recycle, and cost is no object, relatively speaking, because you have to try to use the resources at hand around you.

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#134

Post by iso1631 »

Danox wrote: post #129
dtech wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "advantage" is that in contrast to heavy metals like lead lithium is a lot less toxic as far as we know. Not 0, but not in the same league.

Anything that you can dig/pump out of the ground is toxic, particularly to water resources, and if you don’t recognize upfront that, be it the military, companies or government, you have to be prepared to clean up your mess, in short, factor in cleanup and the cost of using rare earths or any other item you can dig up on land or pump from the sea or land, but worldwide, mankind is still not quite there in terms of re…

> Anything that you can dig/pump out of the ground is toxic

Carrots?

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#135

Post by Danox »

simondotau wrote: post #22

This article is poor, because lithium is just one part of the value contained within EV batteries. Far more valuable is any nickel, cobalt and graphite. Equally valuable is any copper and aluminium. Unless you're effectively recycling a significant number of the major materials, it's not enough. Furthermore, it's not a remarkable achievement. By contrast to this headline, Redwood Materials claims "Redwood’s technolog…

It is in Japan’s interest to use the resources at hand around them, in short, do the research whenever possible to consider all options…

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#136

Post by bell-cot »

dburkland wrote: post #70

Redwood Materials already recovers 95% so why is this news?

I could speculate about Redwood's tech being more expensive in other ways, or Japan having "not invented here" issues. But it sounds like 90% vs 95% is academic in today's Japan:

> In Japan's case, though, the biggest bottleneck right now isn't the technology. It's actually getting dead batteries to recyclers in the first place. Only about 14% of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in the country currently make it through official collection channels. Many retired EVs actually end up getting exported, making those valuable metals inaccessible. Solving this problem is now more important than ever.

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#137

Post by Danox »

donjapan22 wrote: post #5
fzeroff wrote: post #2

What a poorly written article

While I’m very excited for the new recycling breakthrough, I felt the same. It was… off

How is Toyota and Honda doing in the car market in comparison to GM and Ford? How is Sony and Nintendo doing in the gaming market? In comparison to Microsoft? How is Japan doing in the steel industry? How is Japan doing in their efforts to match Space X? I Applaud their recent success with their rocket.

Japan seems to do well in research and development, and they also seem to open to iterate over time very well when they put their minds to it. I’m glad they’re somewhat on our side but not mindlessly so.

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#138

Post by chihuahua »

googletop wrote: post #55

Mercedes opened a battery recycling plant in 2024, claiming a recycling rate of 96%, of the whole battery. So not sure how much of a breakthrough this japanese tech is https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/news/recycling-facto...

Probably an instance of the "Thing :-| Thing in Japan 8-)" meme.

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#139

Post by Ratelman »

So this isn't groundbreaking results and the article itself is of questionable quality without sufficient detail as to why this is a newsworthy result. How is this the top rated article on hacker news? A more meaningful example would have been the paper that sets out a scalable and cost-effective route for closing the loop on LFP materials, while demonstrating that high-yield lithium recovery and environmental responsibility are not mutually exclusive: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092134492...

Re: Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

#140

Post by ufocia »

Ratelman wrote: post #139

So this isn't groundbreaking results and the article itself is of questionable quality without sufficient detail as to why this is a newsworthy result. How is this the top rated article on hacker news? A more meaningful example would have been the paper that sets out a scalable and cost-effective route for closing the loop on LFP materials, while demonstrating that high-yield lithium recovery and environmental respon…

Agreed. For example, what does the color of lithium hydroxide used instead of sodium hydroxide have to do with anything? They are both white.
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