Abstract
Abstract
The Electric Vehicle (EV) market has been gaining traction due to their benefits to the economy and the environment. EVs are typically powered by Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs), but we tend to find these batteries in landfills when they can no longer be used in EVs. Instead, LIBs can be recycled for their precious metals, which can drastically improve sustainability. The purpose of this research is to examine the environmental and economic impacts of recycling end-of-life (EOL) LIBs entering the market in the future by calculating the emissions mitigated through recycling and the values of materials recoverable from LIBs. Using Reverse Logistics processes, we can bring LIBs to recycling facilities, where LIBs that have reached their EOL are sorted; the ones that cannot be used for any other application can be recycled. By recycling LIBs, we found that most of the materials used in manufacturing can be retrieved for reuse, which emits far less CO2-eq compared to raw material extraction, and subsequently improves the economy by cutting costs for materials. This information is important for sustainable manufacturing of LIBs, and it can be used to design and/or improve recycling facilities.