To an outside observer, recycling companies’ processes look much the same. Batteries are disassembled and pulverized, and the resulting powder is dissolved before being subjected to various chemical techniques. But the details will be the key determinants of how much valuable material recyclers can recover and how much money they can make.
Thanks to these process advancements, the prospects for building a business around battery recycling have improved.the same dynamic is happening Solar Panel Recyclingcompanies are working to recover silver and other expensive materials from these devices.
On a personal level, I think finding ways to recycle and repurpose materials to reduce waste and destructive mining is a worthy goal in itself. But profitability is a surefire way to make battery recycling more likely to happen.
We are still in the early days of battery recycling. China funded and encouraged a huge industryand now Europe and North America are catching up, with companies raising hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and building multibillion-dollar facilities.
To dig deeper into battery recycling, I looked at one of these companies, Redwood Materials. If you’d like to know more about what Redwood is trying to do, or the challenges the company faces, Check out my feature story That came out yesterday. I also spoke with JB Straubel, founder of Redwood Materials and former Tesla CTO, about where he thinks the industry is headed.you can find one An edited version of our conversation is here.
keep up with the climate
Climeworks announces that it is start removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere Orca factory in Iceland. (wall street journal)
→ The plant may not be large, but it is an important step in decarbonisation, one of our breakthrough technologies for 2022. (MIT Technology Review)
The western United States is experiencing record snowfall. Don’t expect it to alleviate the drought, though. (grid news)
