company news about How to recycle millions of waste electric vehicle batteries?

In order to power the car, the electrons in the battery move from the negative pole (anode) to the positive pole (cathode). Generally, the anode is made of copper and graphite, while the cathode consists of a class of compounds called lithium metal oxides, which contain lithium and other metals such as cobalt, manganese and nickel.

All these metals must be extracted, and recycling alone cannot meet market demand. Although there are many copper mines in the United States (and a large part of copper is obtained from waste recycling), almost all other metals in lithium ion batteries come from mines in other countries. More than 80% of lithium in the world comes from Chile, Australia and China, while more than 60% of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This reliance on overseas markets may come at a cost. For example, most of the lithium mined today comes from Chile's fragile Atacama Desert, where it is extracted by evaporating salt water in large ponds. This approach is cost-effective, but researchers and local communities are concerned about toxic waste and the depletion and pollution of water resources; It is estimated that 500000 gallons of water are needed to extract 1 ton of lithium, most of which is evaporated.