Rapid growth in the market for electric vehicles is imperative, to meet global targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to improve air quality in urban centres and to meet the needs of consumers, with whom electric vehicles are increasingly popular. However, growing numbers of electric vehicles present a serious waste-management challenge for recyclers at end-of-life. Nevertheless, spent batteries may also present an opportunity as manufacturers require access to strategic elements and critical materials for key components in electric-vehicle manufacture: recycled lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles could provide a valuable secondary source of materials. Here we outline and evaluate the current range of approaches to electric-vehicle lithium-ion battery recycling and re-use, and highlight areas for future progress.

In this work the use of glycerol as a hydrogen bond donor in Deep Eutectic Solvents is studied. The physical properties of choline chloride mixtures with glycerol are quantified and it is shown that eutectic mixtures can circumvent some of the difficulties of using glycerol as a solvent viz. high viscosity and high melting point. The solvent properties are characterised using polarity parameters and the values are similar to other ionic liquids although it is shown that this procedure is a poor method of characterising Lewis basicity. The application of these liquids to the esterification of glycerol is used as a demonstration of the ability to tune a reaction with the quaternary ammonium halide acting as a quasi-protecting group. The liquids represent a sustainable way of preparing non-toxic, tuneable solvent systems.

Product design is an important factor which can control the efficiency and economics of a recycling flowsheet.