The global use of lithium-ion batteries of all types has been increasing at a rapid pace for many years. In order to achieve the goal of an economical and sustainable battery industry, the recycling and recirculation of materials is a central element on this path. As the achievement of high 95% recovery rates demanded by the European Union for some metals from today’s lithium ion batteries is already very challenging, the question arises of how the process chains and safety of battery recycling as well as the achievement of closed material cycles are affected by the new lithium battery generations, which are supposed to enter the market in the next 5 to 10 years. Based on a survey of the potential development of battery technology in the next years, where a diversification between high-performance and cost-efficient batteries is expected, and today’s knowledge on recycling, the challenges and chances of the new battery generations regarding the development of recycling processes, hazards in battery dismantling and recycling, as well as establishing a circular economy are discussed. It becomes clear that the diversification and new developments demand a proper separation of battery types before recycling, for example by a transnational network of dismantling and sorting locations, and flexible and high sophisticated recycling processes with case-wise higher safety standards than today. Moreover, for the low-cost batteries, recycling of the batteries becomes economically unattractive, so legal stipulations become important. However, in general, it must be still secured that closing the material cycle for all battery types with suitable processes is achieved to secure the supply of raw materials and also to further advance new developments.

Solid‐state batteries possess the potential to combine increased energy densities, high voltages, as well as safe operation and therefore are considered the future technology for electrical energy storage. In particular, sulfides as solid electrolyte are promising candidates due to their high ionic conductivities and the possibility of a scalable production. This review aims to demonstrate ways to manufacture suspension‐based sulfidic solid‐state batteries both on a laboratory scale and on an industrial level, focusing on the assessment of current knowledge and its discussion from a process engineering point of view. In addition to the influence of process parameters during mechanochemical synthesis of the solid electrolyte, formulation strategies for electrodes and separators are presented. The process chain from dispersion to cell assembly is evaluated. Scale‐up technologies are considered in comparison to established techniques in the field of conventional lithium‐ion batteries with liquid electrolyte summarizing the current status of sulfidic solid‐state battery production.

The synthesis of sulfide solid electrolytes in ball mills by mechanochemical routes not only is efficient but also can enable the upscaling of material synthesis as required for the commercialization of solid-state battery materials. On a laboratory scale, the Emax high energy ball mill accounts for high stresses and power densities, as well as for temperature control, to prevent damage to the material and equipment even for long process times. To overcome the merely phenomenological treatment, we characterized the milling process in an Emax by DEM simulations, using the sulfide solid electrolyte LPS as a model material for the calibration of input parameters to the DEM, and compared it to a planetary ball mill for a selected parameter set. We derived mechanistic model equations for the stressing conditions depending on the operation parameters of rotational speed, media size and filling ratio. The stressing conditions are of importance as they determine the outcome of the mechanochemical milling process, thus forming the basis for evaluating and interpreting experiments and for establishing scaling rules for the process transfer to larger mills.

The use of novel battery technologies in short‐haul electric aircraft can support the aviation sector in achieving its goals for a sustainable development. However, the production of the batteries is often associated with adverse environmental and socio‐economic impacts, potentially leading to burden shifting. Therefore, this paper investigates alternative technologies for lithium–sulfur all‐solid‐state batteries (LiS‐ASSBs) in terms of their contribution to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). We propose a new approach that builds on life cycle sustainability assessment and links the relevant impact categories to the related SDGs. The approach is applied to analyze four LiS‐ASSB configurations with different solid electrolytes, designed for maximum specific energy using an electrochemical model. They are compared to a lithium–sulfur battery with a liquid electrolyte as a benchmark. The results of our cradle‐to‐gate analysis reveal that the new LiS‐ASSB technologies generally have a positive contribution to SDG achievement. However, the battery configuration with the best technical characteristics is not the most promising in terms of SDG achievement. Especially variations from the technically optimal cathode thickness can improve the SDG contribution. A sensitivity analysis shows that the results are rather robust against the weighting factors within the SDG quantification method.