Electric vehicles: Brazilian companies are ready to recycle batteries | Estadão Mobility |

Electric car batteries piled up in junkyards or thrown into vacant lots. This was the image that many people had when the useful life of the most important component of the electric vehicle ended. The concern was recurring: how would the battery be disposed of after use?

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Five years after the start of commercial-scale sales of electrified cars in Brazil, it is still too early for batteries to be discarded. After all, after equipping cars for eight to 10 years, they go through a second life cycle in stationary applications, such as providing energy to turn on household appliances.

From then on, the battery’s destination is far from landfills. It will be taken for recycling and the global industry is preparing to do this process.

In this way, specialized companies in Brazil – such as Energy Source, Re-Teck and Lorene – are ready to serve the automotive market at the right time.

Lithium batteries have been used for a long time

“Lithium-ion batteries have been part of Brazilian society for 25 years,” says Marcelo Cairolli, infrastructure director at the Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association (Associação Brasileira do Veículo Elétrico) (ABVE) and vice president of business for Latin America at Re-Teck, an electronics reverse logistics company.

This means that lithium batteries, present in most electric vehicles sold in the country, use the same technology as devices such as cell phones, notebooks, electric bicycles and vacuum cleaners.

“For this reason, we already have experience with battery recycling”, reveals Ariane Mayer, business and ESG director at Energy Source, a circular economy and sustainable technology company.

Research carried out by the São Paulo School of Business Administration, Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV-EAESP), released in 2023, reveals that Brazil then had 249 million smartphones and 115 million active tablets and notebooks.

“This is equivalent to 42.2 thousand tons of batteries in operation. In other words, this is not a new technology in the country and recycling companies are ready to serve the automotive market”, adds Cairolli.

According to data from ABVE, lithium batteries can be 100% recycled, avoiding risks or harm to the environment. “Of course, there will always be a minimum loss. Thus, 95% to 98% of the materials contained in the battery are reused”, says Mayer.

In the case of Energy Source, from 2021 to January 2024, 25 tons of lithium, 150 tons of cobalt, 20 tons of nickel, 250 tons of graphite, 60 tons of copper and 35 tons of aluminum were recovered.

Black mass

Mayer explains that complete recycling takes two days and takes place in two stages. The first consists of the physical and mechanical separation of materials and the second carries out chemical processes, through hydrometallurgy, which involves the dissolution of minerals in an aqueous medium.

The work can process three tons of raw battery per shift. The ores that make up the battery form the so-called “black mass”, a valuable by-product extracted by de-characterization of the component, a technology spread worldwide and also used in Brazil.

“All precautions are important. The battery that will be recycled is transported in an approved container, known as a sarcophagus, and will undergo completely safe handling by trained professionals”, says Mayer. “It is necessary to avoid occupational health risks, such as electric shock.”

As a smartphone’s battery technology is the same as that used by automakers in electrified vehicles, the recycling process is also similar.

The difference is that the automotive component requires more robust and powerful equipment, such as crushers, due to its size and weight of approximately 300 kilos.

Damaged parts go to recycling

It is worth noting that, in the event of a breakdown, it is not always necessary to replace the entire car battery. The owner can request a test of the cells and only replace the damaged ones, which are sent for recycling.

The process will separate plastics, scraps of aluminum and copper and noble metals – reinserted into the production chain and even reused in the manufacture of new batteries.

Another possible destination is the application of the products in animal nutrition and foliar nutrition. In a virtuous circle, batteries made with reused material may undergo more recycling in the future. “Metals never lose their performance capacity”, explains Mayer.

The benefits of recycling go further. It reduces the need to extract ores for the production of batteries, minimizing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and, consequently, the environmental impact.

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Author: Daniela Saragiotto