A study reveals that recycled electric car batteries are not only as efficient as new ones, but they can have a longer life.
Electric mobility is slowly gaining ground around the world. Electric vehicles have conquered our cities and more and more people are choosing electric scooters, electric bikes and motorcycles as a means of transport, as well as electric cars.
That the future of the automotive industry is electric is something that we all have clear, but today we still there is a big problem that the sector has to overcome: lithium batteries. This component overshadows all the advantages that electric cars offer to reduce pollution and slow down climate change.
Lithium is a metal that is in short supply and it is expensive and complicated to extract. Also, lithium batteries have a limited lifespan, and they usually end up in landfills after use.
For this reason, the recycling of batteries is very important, since it allows the reuse of lithium to reduce its extraction, as well as to reuse the electronic waste that accumulates around the world.
It is expected that in the coming years the recycling industry of this material will increase and the latest advances show us revolutionary techniques to give a new life to the batteries of electric cars, but we still have to face another problem: Brands and consumers can be wary of recycled components.
We tend to think that a recycled component, such as the battery, has worse qualities than a new one, but this is a complete mistake. In fact, Recycled batteries can be as efficient as or more efficient than new ones.
This is how it shows a new study in which a team of researchers tested batteries with recycled NMC111 cathodes, the most common type of cathode that contains a third of nickel, manganese and cobalt.
The recycled material showed a more porous microscopic structure, a characteristic that favors the entry and exit of lithium ions.
Thanks to this, the recycled batteries had an energy density similar to those made with commercial cathodes, but with a life cycle of up to 53% longer.
This is very good news for the electric car industry, as it promises to solve one of the great obstacles still in the short or medium term.