The wide adoption of li-ion batteries in electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and energy storage in the last few decades has resulted in huge amounts of retired batteries being routed to landfills or to other recycling centers that may not be equipped with facilities needed to recycle them. The reuse and recycling of end-of-life (EOL) li-ion batteries have become a necessity in many countries around the world, and the United Arab Emirates is not an exception. In fact, those EOL batteries are not allowed to be disposed in landfills because of the adverse environmental effects, which include emissions of toxic gases and possible contamination of surface and ground water. The goal of this project is to develop simple, economic, environment-friendly recycling processes for li-ion batteries using new recycling methods such as direct and mechanical recycling and hydrometallurgy. It is also worth mentioning that end-of-life batteries provide a sources of high-value materials such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel. We also aim to develop techno-economic models to study the dynamics of the supply chain and environmental impacts from production and recycling of li-ion batteries using life cycle assessment approaches.
