Soon we could be flying electrically. Yet, with the use of electronics increasing, the need for precious metals is also on the rise.
This approach could be helpful, but environmentally-friendly recycling is equally important.
An American startup is using cold gases with free electrons, so-called low-temperature plasmas, to recover the desired materials from used lithium-ion batteries. Because lithium is highly combustible.
After the battery has been shredded and the materials pre-sorted, these are treated with the plasma, enabling 95% of materials to be recycled in pure form without excess energy or water consumption.
Lithium-cobalt, aluminium, copper and graphene are thus given a second life as anodes or cathodes in new batteries.
