Toward Sustainable Reuse of Retired Lithium-ion Batteries from Electric Vehicles

As attractive energy storage technologies, Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been widely integrated in renewable resources and electric vehicles (EVs) due to their advantages such as high energy/power densities, high reliability and long service time. Although EVs basically do not produce pollution, the end-of-life (EOL) issues of LIBs cannot be ignored due to their potential economic benefits and environmental risks. Current methods for the retired batteries mainly include disposal, recycling and reuse. EV LIBs can be reused in a variety of applications with less demanding. Compared with recycling and disposal, reuse process can obtain better economic and environmental benefits. Many second life EV LIBs projects have been undertaken and demonstrated the great potential of reuse. However, the reuse should consider economic, environmental, technical, and various market perspectives. Technical challenges that must be faced include safety issues, assessment methods, screening and restructuring technologies, and comprehensive management during the reuse process. Economic feasibility issues, comprehensive supply chains, and the lack of relevant regulations also hinder large-scale development of reuse. It is foreseeable that improvements including standardization, big data and cloud-based technologies are desperately needed to maximize the industrialization of reuse and recycling.