In a warehouse in Chatsworth , California , rows upon rowing of giant wooden crates are stack forty feet high , in a scene somewhat redolent of thesecret U.S. military installationshown at the end of Indiana Jones : raider of the Lost Ark. Instead of Biblical artefact , though , these box hold a more modern form of gem : batteries scavenge from numb galvanising cars .
Here , electronic dissipation innovator Eric Lundgren ’s late venture has softly take shape over the last yr . It ’s calledBigBattery , and the goal is simple : Buy up discarded lithium - ion batteries earlier establish to run galvanic cars , heap , and scooters , and recycle the parts into new batteries that can render energy storage for household solar arrays , help stabilize electrical grids , and more . By doing so , BigBattery is hoping to get out in front of whatexperts warncould become one of thelargest electronic thriftlessness challengesof the 21st century . Researchers recentlyestimatedthat the one million EVs that hit the route in 2017 will eventually lead in around 250,000 ton of toxic battery waste ; the tens of million of cars built in the 2020s will develop far more .
Lundgren , who serve as BigBattery ’s chief executive officer , believes giving batteries a second life-time is the key to reduce this waste and the battery industry ’s overall environmental footprint — and while there are many challenges ahead , he ’s betting that the second - employment market will be highly profitable .
Solar trailers BigBattery purchased from the now-defunct company DC solar. BigBattery is replacing all the lead-acid batteries with EV lithium-ion batteries and reselling them.Photo: Courtesy Eric Lundgren
“ I ’m not getting in trash , ” Lundgren differentiate Gizmodo . “ I ’m getting in diamonds . ”
The companionship , which now has around 50 employee , has garnered $ 7 million worth of investment since it launch in August . It ’s currently purchasing spend lithium - ion batteries from roughly one-half of the automobile manufacturers in the U.S. and in various aftermarkets . With a zero - landfill policy , everything it ’s take in is either being recycle for good time value , or , in the case of most stamp battery components , remanufactured , and resold . This year alone it has contracts to process 43 million pounds of pass EV batteries .
Simon Lambert , a co - lead police detective at the Recycling of Lithium - ion batteries task ( ReLiB ) at the UK’sFaraday Institution , confirm that this modeling could , potentially , work . “ Theoretically , ” said Lambert , “ if you had the wherewithal to be able to invite battery packs in large volume , you could repurpose a very bombastic percentage of the batteries presently on the market . ”
Nissan Leaf battery modules getting re-packaged at BigBattery.Photo: Eric Lundgren
Lundgren , who has been recycle electronics since he was 16 and in 2012 foundedIT Asset Partners , a “ intercrossed ” reprocess company focused on repurposing old gadgets rather than stripping them for raw material , put down the foot for his in style venture from an unusual topographic point : inside a federal prison .
Lundgren wasarrested and sent to jailin June 2018 following anintense sound conflict with Microsoftover M of Windows restore disks he had fabricate for computer refurbishers back in 2012 . ( Lundgren claims the disks had no note value ; Microsoft claimed Lundgren violated its copyright to the tune of$700,000 . at last , the courts decided Lundgren ’s actions qualified him for a $ 50,000 mulct and a 15 - month prison time . ) Determined to stay busy while serving that judgment of conviction , before head to jail Lundgren hired a small team to aid him build a unexampled stage business focused on battery recycling . While there , he wrote letters to his squad as well as potential clients and business collaborator , and used some of his trial hours to have stage business meetings . He likes to say he built the entire company from prison house .
Lundgren was released from slammer three months early on good behavior . When he take out in June , his team “ flip the replacement , ” he said , and turn its operation on . Within a week , Lundgren say , BigBattery had packed its initial 75,000 - square foot adeptness in Chatsworth completely full . Lundgren says the company is currently sitting on 407 megawatt hour Charles Frederick Worth of batteries , enough to power close to 14,000 U.S.homesfor a day .
https://gizmodo.com/recycling-is-broken-1833063010
EV battery are built to last year to 10 , and most of those that BigBattery receive today still have a mountain of lifetime . Perhaps a car was totaled in a crash but the battery itself is undamaged . Or mayhap out of the slews of battery modules inside the pack , one or two are bad , and these can be remove . Every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , workers at the troupe judge the condition of the batteries in their inventory and use that information to figure out how to recycle them .
First , specially - trained mellow voltage engineers unplug the principal force connection to make the modules dependable for anyone to concern . Then , a squad gets to work out subjecting those module to various tests . There ’s a potential difference test that tells technician if a battery is totally bricked and ca n’t be revived . Dead batteries , along with any proprietary casing from the OEM , are mail to traditional recyclers to be crushed and run for material retrieval . Those that still hold charge are subjected to content trial run ; bike three time to determine on the button how long they ’ll last and what they can be used for . Once examination is complete , technicians box available cells and modules of the same level together in new configurations to make batteries of vary sizes and voltages .
Lundgren estimates that most EV electric battery he receives still have more than 80 percentage of their original charge capacity . While they may no longer be fit for lead cars , these battery are often great for renewable vim storage , said Paul Shmotolokha , the founder ofNew Use Energy , a company that forge with BigBattery to trade its remanufactered power packs overseas .
“ It ’s really an emerging occupation , ” Shmotolokha told Gizmodo . “ You ’re able-bodied to take an energy storage result from an app — transportation — and re - engineer for another app where it ’s perfectly satisfactory . ”
Another vulgar source of battery for the company is vitamin E - iceboat . The ice yacht , which have become something of a scourge to drivers andpedestriansalike , oftenbreak down or get recalledwithin months of hitting the streets . But as Lundgren explained , the batteries inside them are plan to last close to a decennary . His company is now converting 75,000 Es - scooter batteries into 4 - pound , portable tycoon packs that can be used for tenting or other purposes .
It ’s difficult to say how much of the market place BigBattery is capturing , because at this item , no one really cognise how many spend EV battery are out there . As with other forms of electronic waste , if electric cars , scooters , and buses are n’t making their way back to to the OEM at the ending of their life , they ’re implausibly difficult to track , said Faraday Institution ’s Simon Lambert . “ The estimate that OEMs can somehow beguile information on where their products are , and what ’s happening to them , is a sorta dreary sky , ” Lambert said , adding that at least for the next decennary or two , most EV shelling are likely to remain “ whole untraceable ” after they ’ve been sold .
What ’s clear is there are enough EV battery reaching the end of their first life to support a fast - grow recycling industry . Lambert pointed to several UK - based companies , includingHyperdrive InnovationandConnected Energy , that are work used EV barrage fire from manufacturers and render them 2nd lives . InOklahoma , five - year - oldSpiers New Technologiesis doing “ life cycle management ” for automakers all over the U.S. , which mean fix , repurposing , and recycle about 2,000 EV battery packs a month .
https://gizmodo.com/the-dirty-truth-about-green-batteries-1833922990
BigBattery , for its part , recently purchase a new dispersion hub in Singapore , a planet installation in Hong Kong , and another 145,000 substantial foundation of storage warehouse space in Chatsworth . As of last month the caller is turning a profit , and by this time next year , it ’s aiming to have doubled its processing volume , accord to Lundgren . “ It ’s gon na get dotty , ” he said .
There will be growing painfulness as the industry matures . Batteries are highly complex , dangerous electronics that can break loose , release toxic gases , or electrocute those who do n’t treat them with tutelage , so safety has to be a Brobdingnagian priority for anyone make into recycling . ( BigBattery isR2 certify , meaning it upholds rigorous health , safe , and environmental standards , it box all forthcoming barrage inDepartment of Transportation - certifiedpackaging , and it does lithium - ion battery fire rubber training every six month . ) There ’s also the fact that battery design and interpersonal chemistry are develop rapidly , and fresh models often require bespoke recycling solutions , which take considerable fourth dimension and resource to formulate . Lundgren said his party is currently drop “ trillion ” engineering resolution .
And while many EV battery at the destruction of their first life today still have a lot of juice in them , in the succeeding recyclers are likely to start get wind more fully - profligate batteries , limit what they can be used for .
What ’s more , as ball-shaped need for lithium - ion batteries grows and critical alloy , like cobalt , become even scarcer , unexampled pressurescould emerge that affect the second - use market , according to Faraday Institution inquiry fellowGavin Harper . In the futurity , Harper said , there might be example where it ’s more important to melt batteries down to recover atomic number 27 for specialized US , like EVs , rather than repurposing a uncommon metal - rich battery for a less finicky software like power system power warehousing .
“ There ’s this whole stress between what the food market will fork up because of economics and what is optimal from a resource parcelling point - of - position , ” Harper say . “ There ’s a real balance to be hit . ”
challenge and uncertainties aside , it ’s clear we postulate to figure out what to do with these batteries so that they do n’t wind up as toxic waste in landfills . And most experts agree that re - use will have a vital role to act .
“ thin the amount of new stuff we make is the most important part of solving a throwaway scheme , and reusing what we ’ve already made is the most efficient path of getting there , ” Nathan Proctor who heads the U.S. Public Interest Research Group ’s Right to Repair Campaign , tell Gizmodo in an email when ask about Lundgren ’s former speculation .
Lambert put it more compactly . “ We ’re in trouble if we ca n’t re - use these things , ” he said .
Note : A exposure that was antecedently let in in this article of Eric Lundgren sit on a Tesla Model 3 shelling clique was move out at his request and substitute with a different exposure .
lithium ion
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