CIRCBAT: Automated Li-ion Battery Recycling
Nidec ARISA is launching CIRCBAT, an industrial research project focused on the automated pre-treatment and recycling of end-of-life Li-ion batteries. Using robotics, artificial vision and selective separation, the project aims to make battery dismantling safer and more efficient. It also seeks to improve the recovery of critical materials for reuse.
We spoke with the Nidec ARISA team to learn more about the challenges CIRCBAT aims to address, how its technology works and its potential impact on a more circular battery value chain.
1. What motivated the development of CIRCBAT, and why is it important to advance the automated pre-treatment of end-of-life Li-ion batteries?
As an organisation, we are firmly committed to developing initiatives that promote the circular economy and reduce the consumption of essential raw materials. At the same time, we have extensive capabilities in complex engineering and automation developments, so we saw an opportunity to combine both strengths in the development of a fully automated solution for a hazardous process that is currently manual and lacks a direct focus on the recovery of essential materials.
2. What are the main technical and safety challenges associated with dismantling electric vehicle batteries?
Practically every step of the process involves very high technical and safety risks and challenges, and it is difficult to assess which phase presents the greatest ones. This is why the aim is to develop a process with no human intervention at any stage, carried out in a fully monitored and safe environment, both in terms of electrical risks and the risk of fire or environmental contamination. These are at the core and the origin of the project.
3. What role do robotics and artificial vision play in the development of the prototype?
They are two of its essential pillars, together with the final electrochemical phase for the direct recovery of critical materials. Both the systems for monitoring the condition of the environment and the battery, as well as the application of AI to battery sorting, are other fundamental aspects of the project.
4. How will CIRCBAT contribute to obtaining clean and traceable fractions to facilitate direct recycling?
By integrating, into an industrialisable and fully autonomous process, a solution that has already been tested at laboratory level and that makes it possible to develop a process for the direct recovery of essential materials from Li-ion batteries, instead of current procedures that seek the partial recovery of components grouped together in the black mass resulting from the mechanical crushing of batteries.
5. What critical materials does the project aim to recover, and why are they strategic for the battery value chain?
The aim is to obtain clean fractions of the essential materials used in current batteries that are fully and directly reusable, namely Cu, Al, Ni, Li, Co, etc.
6. What impact could CIRCBAT have on reducing operational risks and costs in battery recycling?
An absolute impact, since these processes are currently either completely manual or based purely on non-selective mechanical crushing. In addition to being inherently very dangerous, as has recently been seen in the form of fires at storage/recycling plants, they are also economically very inefficient, requiring large amounts of energy to obtain very small and highly heterogeneous fractions.
7. What value does collaboration with technology centres such as CARTIF and TECNALIA bring?
Their contribution is essential, as both centres have an extremely high level of multidisciplinary technical knowledge, previous cross-sector experience and a capacity to generate new ideas that is difficult to find in any environment, whether industrial or research-based.
8. What has your experience of working with Evolution Europe during the funding process been like? What differentiating value would you highlight?
The experience has been very positive. They demonstrated a strong knowledge of the procedures to follow, as well as great dedication, availability and problem-solving capabilities among the staff assigned to us for this project.
