Researchers from the HIU and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive and environmentally friendly recycling process for lithium. Her publication recently appeared in “Nature Communications Chemistry”. Recovering up to 70 percent of the lithium from battery waste without the need for corrosive chemicals, high temperatures, or prior sorting of the materials: This enables a recycling process developed at KIT that combines mechanical processes and chemical reactions. The method allows a wide variety of lithium-ion batteries to be recycled in a cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly manner.
Lithium-ion batteries permeate our everyday life: They not only supply notebooks and smartphones, toys, remote controls and other small devices with wireless power, but also act as the most important energy store for the rapidly growing electromobility. The increasing use of these batteries calls for economically and ecologically sustainable recycling methods. Today, mainly nickel and cobalt, copper and aluminum as well as steel are recovered and recycled from battery waste. The recovery of lithium is currently still expensive and not very profitable. The available, mostly metallurgical processes consume a lot of energy and/or leave behind harmful by-products. In contrast, approaches in mechanochemistry that use mechanical processes to bring about chemical reactions promise higher yields with less effort and greater sustainability.
The Institute for Applied Materials – Energy Storage Systems (IAM-ESS) of the KIT has now developed such a method together with the developed by KIT in cooperation with the University of Ulm and the Helmholtz Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy Storage (HIU) and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG. The researchers present their method in the journal Nature Communications Chemistry. You can achieve a recovery rate of up to 70 percent for the lithium without the need for corrosive chemicals, high temperatures or prior sorting of the materials. “The process is suitable for recovering lithium from cathode materials with different chemical compositions and is therefore suitable for many different commercially available lithium-ion batteries,” explains Dr. Oleksandr Dolotko from the IAM-ESS of the KIT and from the HIU, main author of the publication. “It allows for cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly recycling.”
Reaction takes place at room temperature
For their process, the researchers use aluminum as a reducing agent in the mechanochemical reaction. Since aluminum is already contained in the cathode, the process does not require any additional substances. How it works: The battery waste is first ground up. Then they are used in a reaction with aluminum to create metallic composites with water-soluble lithium compounds. The lithium is then recovered by dissolving the water-soluble compounds in water and then heating to remove the water through evaporation. Since the mechanochemical reaction takes place at ambient temperature and pressure, the process is particularly energy-efficient. Another advantage is the simple process, which will facilitate use on an industrial scale. Because in the near future, large quantities of batteries will have to be recycled.
Original publication (Open Access)
Oleksandr Dolotko, Niclas Gehrke, Triantafillia Malliaridou, Raphael Sieweck, Laura Herrmann, Bettina Hunzinger, Michael Knapp & Helmut Ehrenberg: Universal and efficient extraction of lithium for lithium-ion battery recycling using mechanochemistry. Communications Chemistry, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-023-00844-2
As “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for society and the environment. The aim is to make significant contributions to global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility and information. Around 9,800 employees work together on a broad disciplinary basis in natural sciences, engineering, economics, humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, business, and science through research-oriented university studies. The innovation activity at KIT bridges the gap between knowledge and application for social benefit, economic prosperity and the preservation of our natural foundations of life. The KIT is one of the German Universities of Excellence.
Photos: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT.
March 16th, 2023
HIU research group leader Dr. Simon Fleischmann received a highly endowed scholarship from the Daimler and Benz Foundation this year. Eleven other researchers, mostly postdocs and junior professors, were also honored together with Fleischmann. The duration of the scholarships is two years. Dr. Simon Fleischmann heads the research group “Nanoconfined Electrochemical Interfaces” at HIU.
The award is intended to strengthen your professional career, especially during the productive phase after your doctorate. The funding amount is 40,000 euros per scholarship. The funding program is open to applicants from all scientific disciplines, there are no thematic restrictions. Fleischmann’s funded research topic reads as follows: “Sodium replaces lithium: development of novel electrode materials for a more sustainable battery cell”. In his research at the HIU, he cooperates with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Reinhard Frank Foundation.
— Helmholtz Institute Ulm ???? (@HelmholtzUlm) March 23, 2023
Projekt description
Lithium-ion batteries are experiencing enormous demand in e-cars, portable electronics or stationary energy storage – and the trend is rising. While previous developments were mostly aimed at increasing energy density, aspects of sustainability are becoming increasingly important in times of disrupted supply chains and scarcity of raw materials. One promising approach is to replace lithium with sodium, which is chemically similar but available in large quantities. However, its larger diameter places special demands on the electrodes so that they can absorb and release the ions with high reversibility. Simon Fleischmann’s project explores new electrode materials that are specially designed for sodium transport at fast rates and with high long-term stability.
Simon Fleischmann is a materials scientist at HIU and received his doctorate in 2018 from Saarland University. He then spent two years researching as a postdoc at North Carolina State University and one year as a winner of the Young Energy Storage Scientist Award and scholarship holder at the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. Since November 2021 he has been a junior research group leader at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm. In his work, he researches, among other things, innovative materials for batteries and supercapacitors.
Research location Ulm covers all steps of battery development
Minister President Winfried Kretschmann visits the Cluster of Excellence POLiS, the research platform CELEST and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg
Minister President Winfried Kretschmann visited the Cluster of Excellence POLiS (Post Lithium Storage), HIU and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) at the Ulm research site on February 3, 2023 to learn about battery research. During a laboratory tour at the Cluster of Excellence, he gained a personal overview of a fully digitized and automated laboratory for accelerated material development that is unique in the world. At the ZSW, the focus was on facilities for research into the near-series production of large lithium-ion cells.
“The POLiS Cluster of Excellence, the CELEST research platform and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) are hubs of battery and hydrogen research. Here, battery technology is being taken to a whole new level. With the development of new battery materials that no longer rely on critical materials, Ulm is making an extremely important contribution to making our economy more independent – after all, the geopolitical changes have shown us the effects that dependencies can have,” said Minister President Kretschmann. “As the state government, this is also why we initiated the Battery Round Table, to bring together research and companies in this area. And to identify and accompany challenges and developments in battery technology at an early stage.”
“At the Ulm University, basic electrochemical research dates back to the 1980s. Today, more than 400 employees at various institutions are involved in the entire battery research development chain, making Ulm one of the battery competence centers in Europe,” said Prof. Michael Weber, president of Ulm University.
“At KIT, we pursue a transdisciplinary approach in battery research that encompasses the entire value chain. From materials research to production technology and cell development to complete energy storage systems, we are working on innovative solutions,” says Prof. Holger Hanselka, President of KIT. “In doing so, we work in a practical manner and cooperate closely with industry and our renowned partner institutions in Ulm and around the world to contribute to the energy transition.”
“Based on the long-standing expertise of the University of Ulm and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Helmholtz Institute Ulm, POLiS and the CELEST research platform have been created together with the ZSW. The CELEST initiative makes us one of the largest players in battery research worldwide,” said Prof. Dr. Maximilian Fichtner, director of CELEST and spokesperson for the POLiS excellence cluster.
“Battery materials, battery cells and complete battery systems – especially for electromobility – are developing at a rapid pace. At the Ulm Science Park, all players are ideally positioned to implement development trends in batteries,” says. Prof. Dr. Markus Hölzle, ZSW board member and head of the Electrochemical Energy Technologies business unit. The focus at ZSW in Ulm is on technology transfer from laboratory scale to series production.”
Batteries based on sodium, magnesium and calcium
The POLiS cluster of excellence is researching more sustainable battery materials and technology concepts based on sodium, magnesium and calcium that do not require lithium and other critical raw materials. The first automated platform for accelerated battery material development represents an important building block for research into lithium alternatives. “Our facility is capable of building batteries around the clock, analyzing thousands of interfaces, evaluating them using artificial intelligence (AI) methods, and planning new experiments. In addition to acceleration through automation, the algorithms and AI can achieve additional optimization, which is 10 times faster, and bring promising battery materials to market faster and at lower cost,” said tenure-track Prof. Helge Stein (KIT), research area spokesperson at POLiS. The research facility is also embedded in a European framework. Data collected by the facility from all areas of the battery development cycle are shared with 34 institutions from 15 countries in the BIG-MAP project of the European research initiative BATTERY2030+, in which CELEST also plays an important role.
Industrial production research from the material to the cell
More than 100 scientists at ZSW have been working on lithium-ion and post-lithium batteries for many years. Here, the institute takes a holistic approach: Beginning with the production and characterization of active materials to the construction of complete battery systems and their testing, the work ends with the topic of battery recycling. Minister President Winfried Kretschmann visited the pilot plant for the industrial production of large lithium ion cells, which has been in operation since 2013 and will be expanded in 2022 and is unique in Europe, as they are used in electric vehicles today. Another stop on the tour was the construction site for the new “Powder-Up” pilot plant. Over the next twelve months, the ZSW will construct a new building for a pilot plant to produce cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries in material batches of 100 kilograms. Such quantities are required to be able to produce large battery cells for electric cars or stationary storage units in the first place. The facilities cover the entire production chain, but also enable research work on individual manufacturing steps. The battery materials produced can then be used in pilot plants at research institutes or by battery producers. The state of Baden-Württemberg is supporting this new building with 10 million euros.
About HIU
The Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) was founded in January 2011 by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) as a member of the Helmholtz Association in cooperation with Ulm University. With the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), two other renowned institutions are involved in the HIU as associated partners. The international team of around 120 scientists is researching at the HIU on the further development of the basics of future-proof energy storage systems for stationary and mobile use.
From December 5th to 8th the 7th ICNaB Conference – the “International Conference on Sodium Batteries” took place in Ulm. The organizers, the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) welcomed over 200 researchers and numerous representatives from science, industry and politics.
The program consisted of 41 lectures, the presentation of scientific posters and awards for them. The organizer duo, consisting of Dr. Margret Wohlfahrt-Multiens (ZSW) and Prof. Dr. Stefano Passerini (HIU), sounded optimistic: “The ICNaB conference showed the many different aspects of sodium batteries that are being investigated and developed to make them cheaper, technologically mature and, especially, sustainable, as well as it underlined the clear interest of industries world-wide in their production as energy storage devices complementary to lithium-ion batteries”, Passerini said.
Sodium-ion batteries are the focus of Passerini’s research group. These cells consist of materials that are described as available, uncritical, particularly inexpensive, powerful and at the same time durable. Therefore, these batteries are also considered sustainable. Passerini expects sodium battery production to ramp up as early as next year.
The ICNaB conference in Ulm also dealt with the development of sodium batteries from the laboratory to mass production. This transition from research to industrial production brings with it many challenges for both universities and companies: from material development, procurement, locations to plant construction and personnel issues. In addition, the conference addressed necessary infrastructure investments as well as sustainable production and recycling.
In addition, the conference also addressed the necessary infrastructure investments and the need for sustainable production and recycling. A scientific poster session gave participants, especially young scientists, a platform for discussion. The POLiS cluster of excellence, the University of Ulm, as well as the HIU and the ZSW were particularly involved.
It is so good to be at conferences in person again, and what a fabulous and friendly crowd at #icnab for our PhD student Izzah at her first poster presentation. pic.twitter.com/hiLfVkyYff
— Energy Materials Group (Birmingham) (@EnergyMatBham) December 7, 2022
Best Poster Awards
1st Prize (EERA JP Energy Storage: 300 EUR)
Winner: Emily Foley, UC Santa Barbara (USA)
Poster Title: “Investigating Polymorphism and Synthesis in Na2Fe2F7 and its Effect on Electrochemical Properties”
2nd Prize (EERA JP Energy Storage: 200 EUR)
Winner: Alexander Martin Kempf, TU Darmstadt (DE)
Poster Title: “Unlocking high-rate performance in C/Sn-composites by employing an ultra-fast heating process”
3rd Prize (“ChemSusChem” book voucher at “Wiley”: 200 EUR)
Winner: Till Ortmann, Justus Liebig University Giessen (DE) (POLIS)
Poster Title: “Growth Behaviour of Sodium Metal at NaSICON-Type Solid Electrolyte for Reservoir-free Sodium Solid State Batteries”
4th Prize (“Batteries&Supercaps” book voucher at “Wiley”: 100 EUR)
Winner: Silvia Porporato, Polytechnic of Turin (IT)
Poster Title: “An electrochemical investigation of electrode materials coupled with ionic liquid-based electrolytes for Na-ion batteries”
Whether electromobility, portable electronics or grid storage for the power supply – life without lithium-ion batteries is difficult to imagine today. But the mining of lithium and other necessary raw materials such as nickel and cobalt causes high ecological costs and soon comes up against natural limits. An alternative may be calcium-sulphur batteries, the development of which is being promoted in the CaSino joint project coordinated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Fueled by our electrolyte. And our anode which makes >5000 cycles. Again, the challenge is the polysulfides. https://t.co/23EZQ78FDA
“Like lithium, calcium has a high storage capacity and cell voltage,” says Maximilian Fichtner, director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), which was founded by KIT in cooperation with Ulm University. “It is also the fifth most abundant element in the earth’s crust and is equally available worldwide. Calcium is therefore also much cheaper than lithium and offers a more stable materials supply chain.” With the development of the first stable prototypes, the team at HIU had already laid the foundation for the new calcium technology. Through innovative material development, significant advances in terms of cycle stability and energy density are now to be achieved in CaSino.
Improved electrolytes for longer life
“The biggest challenge is still the reactivity of the calcium, which causes it to form unfavorable surface layers,” explains Zhirong Zhao-Karger from the HIU, who is in charge of the project. “Thanks to a boron-based electrolyte, however, we are already achieving the best electrochemical properties according to the latest state of the art.” Together with IoLiTec GmbH, a specialist for ionic liquids, the HIU is now striving to further improve the electrolyte. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is initially funding CaSino for three years.
Prof. Dr. Stefano Passerini has been awarded this year’s Alessandro Volta Medal.
The award ceremony took place during the 242nd meeting of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) in Atlanta (USA) on October 12, 2022. The society awards the prize every two years for outstanding research work in the field of electrochemistry and solid state research.
The jury recognized Passerini’s research activities in the development of materials for high-energy batteries and supercapacitors. These pursue the goal of creating sustainable energy storage systems from environmentally friendly and available materials.
The Italian chemist, currently deputy director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm, received the award in particular as a pioneer in the field of ionic liquids and the development of sodium-ion batteries. Stefano Passerini has been one of the most cited scientists in this field for years and has already published more than 600 articles in specialist journals, books and conference papers.
Sodium-ion batteries are the focus of Passerini’s research group. These cells are made of materials that are described as available, particularly inexpensive, powerful and at the same time long-living. Therefore, these batteries are also considered sustainable. Passerini expects sodium battery production to ramp up as early as next year.
Along with Passerini, Jerry Barker was awarded the Volta Medal. Jerry Baker is the co-founder of the British company Faradion Ltd. The start-up company sells first Sodium-ion batteries.
The award consists of a silver medal and $2,000 in prize money. Like every awardee, Passerini was invited to give a “Volta Award Lecture” on a certain topic of great interest. In his lecture (“From the Oil Barrel to Reactive Metals: An Approach to the Energy Transition”), Passerini presented various solutions of electrochemical storage models. According to Passerini, particularly reactive, metal-based storage systems based on aluminum and sodium are able to meet all sustainability and storage criteria. Both the steam combustion of molten aluminum to produce hydrogen and heat make interesting models. In addition, liquid saltwater batteries could one day help store energy electrochemically in seawater.
The Volta Medal was established by the “Europe Section” of the Society for Electrochemistry in 1998 to recognize outstanding achievements in electrochemistry and solid state scientific and technological research.
Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist and is considered the inventor of electrochemistry. He is said to have invented the “voltaic pile”, known today as the first electric battery. The SI unit of electrical potential (voltage), better known as Volt, is named after him.
The Japanese company Horiba presents its annual award for innovative work in the field of analytical measurement technology that contributes to decarbonisation. This year, Prof. Helge Stein, Research Unit leader at HIU, receives the award for his research on data driven acceleration of materials discovery and upscaling through correlative spectroscopy and lab-scale manufacturing.
The 500,000 yen prize was awarded to Prof. Stein with the jury stating that the automation of material discovery experiments he has achieved will add a new dimension to the research of energy materials for decarbonisation in all energy sectors.
The Masao Horiba Award was established in 2003, to highlight innovative work in analytical measurement technologies. This information is critical to understanding many phenomena and, thus, forms the basis of new scientific research. These properties also form the foundation for the transition of materials to industrial production. For the product and process optimization, these analytical and measurement technologies are indispensable. The Masao Horiba Award, named after the founder of HORIBA, Ltd., should contribute to illuminating the achievement of researchers who are working hard in the field of analytical and measurement technology.
Visit a country for the first time and make it into local newspapers twice ✅ I think this should be a new benchmark for everyone! Thanks! pic.twitter.com/s7W4UE0lYq
In the seminar at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), outstanding international battery researchers share their scientific findings and technological inventions with Ulm scientists and students. The seminar takes place every Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. during the lecture period.
21.10.2022 Dr. Oleg A. Borodin Battery Science Branch, US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, USA
02.11.2022 Prof. Dr. Elie Paillard Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
16.11.2022 Prof. Dr. Benjamin Butz Micro- and Nanoanalytics Facility, University of Siegen, Germany
21.12.2022 Dr. Theresa Schoetz Department of Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York, CUNY, NY 10031, USA
11.01.2023 Prof. Dr. Monika Schönhoff Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Muenster
01.02.2023 Dr. Martina Mernini MG Marposs, Italy
06.02.2023 Dr. Nicolò Campagnol, Dr. Matthias Künzel & Monica Wang Battery Insights by McKinsey & Company, Rue Brederode 2, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgien, RUEDSD, Belgium
06.03.2023 Dr. Manuel Smeu
Department of Physics & Materials Science and Engineering Program, Binghamton University
September 6th to 8th, 2022
More than 100 battery experts met in Ulm from September 6th to 8th to discuss the latest developments in batteries that do not require lithium. The 4. “International Symposium on Magnesium Batteries”, MagBatt4 for short, has been established in Ulm since 2016 and attracts researchers from all over the world. This time, the program was expanded to multivalent batteries in addition to magnesium batteries and was discussed in a total of 37 lectures and one poster session.
Multivalent batteries are based on magnesium, calcium, aluminum and zinc. They offer an interesting alternative in terms of the amount of energy that can be supplied, safety, manufacturing and disposal costs and limited environmental impact. The development of completely new battery chemistries is a major challenge. In particular, the high cationic conductivity of multivalent cations such as Mg2+ and Ca2+, Zn2+ or Al3+ is difficult to achieve at ambient temperatures in solid electrolytes. Various phenomena have been discovered that can improve conductivity, such as e.g., nanoparticulate additives, nano-encapsulation, stabilization of disordered polymorphs with high dynamics in the solid state, etc. Development of electrodes compatible with high-performance electrolytes is also challenging.
In the seminar of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), outstanding international battery researchers share their scientific findings and technological inventions with scientists and students in Ulm. The seminar takes place every Tuesday at 2 pm during the lecture period.
25.04.2022 Prof. Dr. Bing Joe Hwang National Taiwan University of Science and Technology & National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Taiwan
11.05.2022 Prof. Dr. B. Layla Mehdi Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, University of Liverpool, L693GH, UK The Faraday Institution, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot OX110RA, UK
18.05.2022 Prof. Dr. Andrea Balducci Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Institute for Technical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry and Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry Jena (CEEC Jena)
23.05.2022 Dr. Linas Vilčiauskas Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC), Vilnius, Lithuania
24.05.2022 Prof. Po-Ya Abel Chuang University of California, Merced, USA
08.06.2022 Prof. Xuehang Wang Radiation Science and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, TU Delft, The Netherlands
15.06.2022 Dr. Tobias Placke MEET Battery Research Center, Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Münster, Corrensstraße 46, 48149 Münster, Germany
20.07.2022 Prof. Alexandru Vlad IMCN Institute, Universitè catholique de Louvain, Belgium
22.07.2022 Dr. Dominik Soyk Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
14.09.2022 Prof. Dr. Prabeer Barpanda Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
