Battery Recycling
IonDrive is Advancing an Environmentally Friendly, Cost-Effective Battery Recycling Technology
At IonDrive, we are focused on developing an efficient and environmentally friendly battery recycling technology. Our goal is to improve recycling processes to reduce environmental impact while meeting the growing demand for recycled materials.
Hydrometallurgical Battery Recycling
Lithium battery recycling is currently extremely inefficient, hazardous, and costly. Most recycling is accomplished through incineration through extreme temperatures, or corrosion with powerful and toxic acids. Our Hydrometallurgical Battery Recycling project is built to provide a better solution.
Our Deep-Eutectic Solvent (DES) technology offers a new approach to recycling lithium-ion batteries. DES is a mixture of two solvents that work together to dissolve specific metal oxides in spent batteries. This method avoids the use of high temperatures and corrosive acids found in traditional recycling, making it a safer and more sustainable option.
The DES process improves the recovery and purity of critical metals like nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium. By reducing the need for multiple refining stages, our technology enhances overall efficiency and produces fewer emissions and less waste.
The Opportunity
The demand for effective battery recycling is increasing due to the growth of the electric vehicle market and new environmental regulations. A study by leading battery market consultant RhoMotion highlighted IonDrive’s DES process as an attractive environmental value proposition. The study emphasised that our DES process, which uses benign, biodegradable organic solvents, would be particularly appealing in the EU, US, and Australia.
The EU’s new Batteries Regulation, part of the European Green Deal, aims to improve the environmental performance of batteries throughout their lifecycle. With targets for recycling efficiency, material recovery, and recycled content being introduced from 2025 onwards, this regulation mandates that all collected waste batteries must be recycled with high levels of recovery for critical raw materials such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel. Additionally, the Critical Raw Materials Act supports these efforts by setting benchmarks for recycling at least 25% of the EU’s annual consumption of critical raw materials by 2030.
