The University of Akron will receive $2 million to study how to sort plastic and polymer waste from electric vehicle (EV) battery packs at the end of their useful lives to find new applications for the materials and keep them out of landfills.
EV batteries are complex devices that combine different metals, polymers and composite materials. It is extremely difficult to disassemble and recycle batteries that are at the end of their lifespans, according to a Thursday news release from U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes’ office.
The study will also look at the plausibility of simultaneously retrieving and recycling EV waste to be used as raw materials for new batteries.
“Electrification of vehicles is critical to achieving clean transportation, but this cannot come at the expense of generating a mountain of electronic waste,” said James Eagan, an assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering at the University of Akron.
“In our project, we’re developing robotic disassembly and sorting of the precious metals and the plastics in the battery packs. We then take those separated materials and recycle them through scalable methods,” Eagan said.
The study is one of eight projects totaling $44.8 million announced Oct. 31 by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO). The money came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and each project is aimed at making it cheaper to recycle EV batteries and their components.
The funding is part of the second phase of $200 million in total provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for EV battery recycling and second life applications.
