A generic framework for recycling of battery module for electric vehicle by combining the mechanical and chemical procedures

By year 2020, due to enormous growth of production of electric vehicles, it is estimated that approximately 250 000 tons of battery must be disposed or recycled. Till date, the technology to recycle this much amount of batteries in a single year does not exist. Nor, do the methods for recycling are standardized and regulated because of differences in configurations of battery packs. This article conducts a systematic review on research of recycling methods for battery pack used in various stages such as from the dismantling/ disassembly of the battery pack, the detection of the residual energy of the battery, and the recycling/recovery of materials from the battery. The review summarizes basically the 2 main aspects of recycling of battery pack: the mechanical procedure and the chemical recycling. The work describes the existing recycling technology in these 2 aspects and identifies the important research problems in the process of recycling of battery pack such as (1) complexity of dismantling process of battery pack; (2) diversity of connectors used in battery pack; (3) safety of dismantling of battery pack; (4) instability of chemical materials in battery; (5) the chaos of the recycling market; and (6) emerging battery dismantling technologies. One important direction suggested is the automation of battery pack disassembly, which is a main factor towards formulation of generic framework for recycling of battery pack in an efficient manner. Based on these gaps, the present work also proposes a framework for the recycling of battery pack by combining the semi-automation mechanical procedure of battery pack and enhanced chemical recycling of battery for recovery of vital materials. Future work for authors is to work on establishing and validation of proposed framework. The advantages of the proposed framework are compared with that obtained from the existing framework. The proposed framework when used shall result in efficient and effective recycling of battery module and promote greener environment.