The battery has become common in our daily lives. Smartphones, devices electric vehicles, and batteries are everywhere. There are many categories of rechargeable accumulator batteries: nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lead, and lithium. Lithium batteries are promised a bright future if we consider their advantages: lightness, small size, lifespan, and great potential for progress in reducing costs. This is the technology used by the company batteries-prod
Several lithium-ion battery technologies exist with their uses. To make a battery, several electric accumulators or electrochemical cells must be assembled. Connected, these cells create an electric generator.
A lithium battery manufacturer will use several materials: lithium of course, but also cobalt, manganese, graphite, and nickel. Given their rarity, the supply of metals remains a sensitive issue. Thus, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are key producers of rare metals even if they do not have a monopoly on them. It should also be noted that many car manufacturers design and produce the battery pack internally to better control performance and generate more profits.
Lithium battery manufacturing: a demanding process
A lithium battery manufacturer classifies its production by lithium-ion cell types: lithium metal polymer cells, lithium metal cells, and lithium-ion polymer cells. These lithium compounds are hygroscopic, meaning they absorb moisture from the air, producing hydrogen, heat, and lithium hydroxide. Such a reaction to moisture is likely to have adverse effects on the lithium battery: quality, durability, and reduced performance. It is therefore particularly necessary to work in environments with very low humidity.
Faced with growing demand, production labs are tending to expand with facilities featuring multiple lithium battery manufacturing lines. Some of the giants in the automotive battery industry include LG Chem, Panasonic, and Samsung SDI.
The demands of manufacturing these batteries require perfect control of the humidity of the working environment. This requires, in particular, the continuous supply of dry air at -60ºC, while consuming as little energy as possible.
In addition, the safety of manufacturing batteries, considered hazardous products, requires a careful and robust manufacturing process.
Lithium batteries: the challenges of recycling
There are recycling channels for electric batteries, but this requires going through a series of crushing and refining stages, the cost of which is far from negligible. However, improving the recyclability of batteries is a major challenge for the future of the electric vehicle industry.
To avoid environmental pollution by batteries, several solutions have been developed. In the French example, the company SNAM works with many car manufacturers for the recovery and recycling of end-of-life electric vehicle batteries.
Increasingly, the solutions implemented are moving towards the reuse of electric car batteries. The Renault-Nissan group in particular has taken the initiative to reuse the used batteries of its electric vehicles to store stationary electricity: this involves creating infrastructures capable of storing electricity to restore it on demand.
In addition, a future technology was made public in 2016: cold sintering (100-110°C instead of more than 1,000°C). This is a process that avoids the destruction of organic or ceramic materials. This makes recycling these materials easier.
