What's inside an electric car's battery? A goldmine of metal opportunities to recover
María Sanchez Rivas and Valeria López Peña
Madrid (EFEverde) - Advanced technology, exterior design, and zero emissions have made electric vehicles an international favorite. But what's inside these seemingly environmentally sustainable cars?
During 2024, Spain sold more than one million vehicles, of which 115,932 were electrified. This figure represents 11.4% of national demand for this vehicle. This percentage is still below the European Union's target, which establishes that all vehicles manufactured for use in the common space must produce zero emissions by 2035.
The batteriesThe increasing demand for batteries worldwide is heightening interest in accessing the resources that enable electrification. These include critical materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which are used to make the batteries that power electric vehicle engines. For example, a Tesla has 2,400 heavy-duty structural modules inside and underneath, enabling its mobility.
According to data collected by ANFAC, in 2024 the two best-selling electric vehicle models were the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y , results that placed Elon Musk's company at number one among the best-selling brands in Spain, a situation that is beginning to change following its founder's foray into politics.
In any case, these electric vehicles have great potential for recovering critical materials found in countries like China and Russia, sparking geopolitical interest in their control, as they can provide alternatives to address the challenges of the energy transition. However, their extraction generates environmental impacts, so recycling is key to their reuse and, thus, promoting the circular economy.
How to recycle batteries?Electric vehicle batteries are composed of materials that can be recovered through processes being researched in laboratories such as the one located at the Center for Metallurgical Research, an institution affiliated with the CSIC. Its director, Félix Antonio López, is a scientific researcher on the RCMetals project, where they have designed a technology that recovers these critical metals, and which is already in operation.
López explains to EFEverde how the process is carried out in the pilot plant: “It's like making coffee. On one side is the ground coffee, and on the other, the diluted coffee. The former, as its name suggests, consists precisely of grinding the modules as much as possible, in order to separate them through physical-chemical processes.”
The researcher emphasizes that "that's the trick," since these are components located so low on the periodic table, which makes them rare and complex, making it difficult to achieve a high level of purity.
The second method is a kind of furnace , the researcher explains: "It's the first in Europe and the second in the world, after Australia." The process begins with the introduction of crushed modules to which oxygen, hydrogen, and other elements are then added. These are mixed with a black lance, and from this metallurgy, an ingot emerges, a "kind of biscuit," with pieces of gold, copper, and other metals. In addition, "behind us, we have another section for purifying the gases present, to varying degrees, in these electronic devices, because they have an environmental impact," López points out.
Although the RCMetals project team is limited to research and development processes, companies such as Atlantic Copper and Ilumia are in the process of implementing their research to recover copper and lithium, respectively. López believes that the collaboration of these companies is key to making "what we do an industrial reality."
Therefore, the scientist believes it is necessary not only to promote eco-design that facilitates the separation of parts, but also to promote this urban mining technology, which López explains as "developing a sustainable city that makes use of everything that is thrown away."
In that sense, and with the large volume of electric vehicles that Spain already has, the scientist believes that "these recycling and utilization technologies make a lot of sense, since everything we recover is finite natural resources that will eventually run out." Therefore, "it seems logical that before doing more excavations, we pay attention to what we have already manufactured," concludes López. EFEverde
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Every May 17, since 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrates World Recycling Day.
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