The lithium-ion battery end-of-life market – A baseline study

The purpose of this baseline study is to give an overview of the status of the end-of-life market today and how it is predicted to evolve during the next decade. [...] It means that the recycling of these batteries, at least when the cobalt price is on the high side, can be positive throughout the value chain, from the collector to the recycler. [...] As the largest amount of recyclable materials comes from LCO batteries which have been on the market for a long time and have a higher amount of cobalt per kg then what is the case for NMC and NCA, the volume of recycled cobalt is not insignificant compared to what currently is used in production. [...] The value of the recycling market is important not only for the actual profitability in the recycling industry. [...] For second life challenges such as information about the battery’s state of health and difficulties in the disassembly process are increasingly addressed through the development of smart battery management systems and modular design of the batteries.