Battery recycling & power electronics

While electric vehicles (EV) are widely viewed as a scalable green mobility solution, running on batteries may pose an impact on the environment as battery retirement concerns arise. Currently, retired batteries are being recycled, repurposed or disposed of.

However, the process of recycling battery may be a challenging and costly one. For instance, end-of-life EV battery recycling is inefficient due to the suboptimal battery component recovery process, stiff market competition and high battery recovery cost. Similarly, producing second-life application batteries poses complex challenges due to the varying battery cell sizes and chemistries.

New innovations are emerging across the battery value chain from raw materials and cell components to battery management and sustainability. Also, battery recycling is being commercialized at scale as major automakers search for ways to repurpose batteries as energy storage and industrial/residential applications.

Governments and companies worldwide are also participating in battery recycling efforts to ease battery material demand and alleviate supply chain concerns. As EV adoption continues to scale, regulators are drafting new laws for battery waste management.

Power electronics is taking things a step further by producing next-generation technologies in the battery management space. Today, silicon insulated-gate bipolar transistors (Si IGBTs) are the dominant semi-conductors used in power electronics. However, their limited conversion speed, low state conduction losses and expensive thermal management restricts their potential.

Instead, wide band-gap (WBG) semi-conductors are taking over with major automakers such as Tesla, Hyundai and Lotus partnering suppliers and switching to WBG semi-conductors – resulting in strong competition globally.

Embracing greener transportation options would first require holistic consideration of the entire battery value chain. Battery lifecycle management will be integral to power successful EV adoption worldwide – both literally and figuratively.

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Look out for the fourth report from our 5-part e-mobility series: What’s charging an EV?

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