A feasibility study on the economic viability of UK Automotive Battery Recycling

Battery producers are obliged to recycle their batteries as defined by the EU Battery Directive. However, the UK at present does not have an automotive battery recycling industry. The purpose of the project is to investigate the economic potential and define the business model for a UK end-of-life automotive battery recycling industry and the current and future barriers to such a venture. The business model will seek to determine the stakeholders, material flows, recycling processes, recovered material value, business relationships between the stakeholders, and the barriers to be overcome.
The project also seeks to understand the information required in order to evaluate whether automotive battery packs can be re-used or have reached end-of-life, either at whole pack, module or cell level. As part of this we will examine the possible testing approaches that may be required in order to determine re-use feasibility. These have not, to our knowledge, been systematically developed for this use, and therefore developing a rigorous testing methodology that can determine when batteries have reached end-of-life will be of use to the emerging EV industry in the UK.