UA awarded $2 million for EV battery recycling research

The U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) awarded the University of Akron $2 million to fund a study that will focus on recycling plastics and other polymers from electric vehicle (EV) battery packs, to prevent the materials from polluting landfills.

"As a member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, I am proud to advocate for and support scientific research initiatives that prioritize our environment and further cement our community's role as a leader in the polymer industry," said Rep. Sykes.

"Electrification of vehicles is critical to achieving clean transportation, but this cannot come at the expense of generating a mountain of electronic waste. In our project, we're developing robotic disassembly and sorting of the precious metals and the plastics in the battery packs. We then take those separated materials and recycle them through scalable methods. The academic team at the University of Akron is collaborating with Ohio-based companies to translate these technologies into the marketplace and accelerate the transition to clean transportation." said James Eagan, assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering at The University of Akron.

The batteries in EVs are complex devices that are mixtures of many different metals, polymers and composite materials. It is currently extremely difficult to disassemble and recycle batteries that are at the end of their lifespan. This grant will fund a study by the University of Akron to sort plastic and polymer waste from EV battery packs that have reached the end of their useful life and find new applications for the materials.

The study will also look at the plausibility of simultaneously retrieving and recycling EV waste to be used as raw materials for new batteries. Specifically, the metals can be purified through a patented solvent system and used as raw material. The plastics are able to be reprocessed with new technology that preserves the mechanical toughness and can be remanufactured into a new battery pack.

This is one of eight projects the VTO announced totaling $44.8 million. This money came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and each project is aimed at improving the economics of recycling EV batteries and their components.

This funding opportunity is the second phase of $200 million in total provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for EV battery recycling and second life applications. In the first phase, the Department of Energy awarded $74 million to 10 projects to advance technologies and processes for EV battery recycling and reuse. Projects selected for this second phase will reduce the costs associated with transporting, dismantling, and preprocessing end-of-life electric drive vehicle batteries for recycling; and recycling of plastic and polymer electric drive battery accessory components. On September 20, 2024, DOE announced an intent to fund the third phase with up to $70 million for projects that will improve the economics of electric drive vehicle battery recovery and re-use.

Media Contact: Cristine Boyd; [email protected]; 330-972-6476