As the volume of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries continues to grow, safely transporting damaged or spent battery packs has become one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Shipping costs continue to rise, hazardous material requirements add complexity, and concerns over thermal events remain a significant liability.
BCA Industries has spent years evaluating how these challenges can be addressed before batteries ever leave the collection site.
The company began exploring whether batteries could be processed into a substantially inert material onsite, reducing both safety risks and the regulatory burden associated with moving hazardous battery packs.
“The real issue is that they are inherently dangerous to move,” explains John Neuens, Industrial Consultant.
Neuens says BCA met with insurance providers, processors, and cleanup projects. Insurers were far more interested in eliminating transportation risk than simply managing it.
“If the material can be stabilized onsite, it becomes much safer to ship and may even qualify for shipment as non-hazardous material, depending on the circumstances,” says Neuens.
A mobile recycling system can be brought directly to the batteries, reducing liability by eliminating multiple handling and transportation steps.
BCA designed a portable version of its established battery recycling technology to safely shred batteries, recover valuable black mass, and prepare the remaining material for transportation.
“A portable system removes much of the concern of processing batteries indoors, while reducing some of the permitting issues associated with permanent installations,” says Neuens.
The system uses two semi-trailers for shredding and material handling, and water treatment and filtration. BCA packages recovered material in steel drums, allowing it to stabilize before shipment.
BCA developed a water treatment approach that allows wastewater to be collected and processed through an environmental services partner rather than released onsite.
The batteries are shredded within a sealed nitrogen and water environment, while agitation and controlled water separation recover black mass.
An inert nitrogen environment can help prevent thermal runaway by substantially reducing the available oxygen concentration.
The mobile platform captures approximately half of the available high-purity black mass during initial processing, providing an immediate revenue stream while substantially reducing transportation hazards.
“The economics of recycling lie not just in metal separation, but in recovering black mass,” says Neuens. “Black mass after filtration to pCAM [a precursor cathode active material] can go right back into new battery production or into new products and applications.”
For more information: call 414-353-1002; fax 414-353-1003; email john@bca-industries.com; visit www.bca-industries.com or write to BCA Industries, 7036 N. Teutonia Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53209.