This recycling facility will make EVs even more eco-friendly.
Formosa Smart Energy Tech's (FSET) new recycling facility in Taiwan will help properly recycle retired EV batteries.
Recycling batteries is a complex process, but it's worth it. EV batteries include finite materials like cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Recovering lithium is especially difficult due to its reactivity, but it's still extremely valuable, as lithium mining is a lengthy process itself.
The batteries are recycled "through a process of crushing, screening, and wet extraction to produce high-purity, battery-grade lithium carbonate essential for lithium battery manufacturing," per AlCircle.
FSET isn't the only company looking to recycle EV batteries. Crusoe Energy Systems, a data center developer, partnered with recycling company Redwood Energy to use retired EV batteries in a microgrid energy system. Mercedes-Benz has been collecting and recycling old EV batteries for its cars since October of last year.
Developing and strengthening the recycling process for lithium batteries brings the EV industry closer to what AlCircle calls a "sustainable energy loop." End-of-life batteries will be easily and sustainably repurposed into new ones without relying on the planet-destroying mining of new materials.
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For consumers, this means longer-lasting, durable batteries and lower costs. For the planet, this means reducing the water-intensive, air-polluting process of mining for lithium.
Even though lithium mining is harmful, driving an EV is still better for the environment than gas-powered cars. Gas-powered cars will produce planet-warming pollution throughout the life of the car, while electric vehicles produce no tailpipe pollution at all.
Not only will driving an EV lower your carbon impact, but it'll lower your monthly fuel costs, too. Making your next car an EV could save you up to $2,200 a year on gas, per the U.S. Department of Energy. You'll also enjoy lower maintenance costs, since EVs don't require routine oil changes or certain part replacements.
Citing FSET Chairperson Sandy Wang, AlCircle stressed that "proper end-of-life recycling and processing of lithium batteries has become an urgent priority. In response, FSET has taken the lead by building Taiwan's first LFP battery recycling demonstration line."
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