The potential of recycled Lithium in battery technology

Recycled lithium matches virgin lithium in purity and performance, offering a sustainable, low-emission alternative that supports the circular economy and meets stringent battery industry standards.

- BY: Manikumar Uppala, Co Founder and Chief of Industrial Engineering at Metastable Materials

The existing lithium supply chain has been burdened with a huge demand from global adoption of electric vehicles, renewable energy storage systems and portable electronics. Traditional mining is resource intensive and harmful to the environment. With the global lithium battery recycling market projected to reach $23.7 billion by 2030, the prospects of the recycling industry seem promising as an alternate sustainable source of supply. However, there is an industry wide question if recycled lithium is as good as lithium extracted through mining “virgin” lithium. This is a fundamental misconception that requires dispelling, for the success of battery recycling and creation of a circular economy.

The Lithium recycling process: How does it compare to virgin Lithium?

a. Extraction & recovery: Purity concerns

Purity is perhaps the most crucial factor, when comparing recycled and virgin lithium. Virgin lithium can be extracted in two waysextraction from salt flats (brine extraction), which takes 12 to 18 months, yielding 50 to 70% lithium recovery through evaporation and hard rock mining (extraction of ores) is processed at high temperatures (1000°C), consuming 15000 kWh per ton of lithium. Brine operations consume over 2.2 million liters of water to mine a single ton of lithium while hard rock mining emits a significant amount of CO₂.

In contrast, recycling, such as the hydrometallurgical process has been shown to have good recovery yields with purities in the range of 96-99%. Pyrometallurgy releases lithium with slag and chlorination roasting can yield 90% purity for lithium chloride from slag. Direct recycling recovers lithium metal oxides of purity above 99% and Integrated Carbothermal reduction also recovers lithium carbonate of purity above 99%, though some of these processes are yet to be commercialised.