Advances in Direct Recycling for

Lithium-ion Batteries

OnTo Technology LLC Steve Sloop

NDIA Event #7670 Joint Service Power Expo

Virgina Beach, VA May 1-4, 2017

Location

OnTo Technology is in Bend, Oregon, which has flights to many US West Coast airports

OnTo Technology LLC

History and future for cost of Li-ion

Cost reduction due to improvements in battery chemistry, manufacturing processes, economies of scale…and commodities dip

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2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 2028 2030

Cost/$/kWh

$3gasoline

$2gasCostgoal~$100

Historic Cost

ProjectedCost

What does recycling cost for Li-ion?

• Estimates $25-$60/kWh

– Major part of the future cost goal of $100/kWh.

• Obviously, this has to decrease for a sustainable EV industry.

OnTo Technology LLC

Existing Technologies Smelting and hydrometallurgy

• Costly, uses a lot of energy. • Li is lost. • Co oriented. • How does this work for NMC,

LFP?

OnTo Technology LLC

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GigaWatt

Sources of Li-ion for Recycle Servable Market is limited by the Rate of • Manufacturing seconds. • Field faults. • Managed battery lifetime. There is a small market now, and a good opportunity to implement direct recycling.

Fielded EV and Utility Batteries

EV or Utility Service

End-of-life Batteries For recycling

Original Manufacturing

OEM demand

Recycle demand

OnTo Technology LLC

OnTo Li-ion Up-cycling Development

OnTo Technology LLC

• OnTo: US Based Feasibility and Technical Development.

• Business: – Consulting for EV and Large Format Industrial

Products. – Evaluation of products for recycle and performance. – Development of manufacturing with recycled

material.

• Pleased to announce “Upcycling of Lithium-ion Battery Materials”, Nissan North America.

• Upcycled Material Partner: CKE & Meekotech

Plan for Direct Recycling Early Consider Recycle in the cathode material plan.

Plan for recycling to save money and resources.

We can help that process.

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FullCellCycling

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d C

ell C

apac

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2Ah, 100% Recycled cell and New cell. Behave identically…the recycled cell is lower cost, higher purity electrode.

EVChem

%ofCapacity

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Recycling

Rate

Capability

Charge/Disc

harge

ChemA 100% Match

ChemB 100% Match

ChemC 100% Match

ChemD 80% 90%

LiCoO2 100% Match

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OnTo Technology LLC

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CellVoltage(V)

SpecificCapacity(mAh/g)

LFPvs.LithiumMetal

BeforeProcessing

AfterProcessing

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Recycled NMC

Recycled Spinel-layered metal oxide-mix

Recycled Li-Iron-Phosphate

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Recycled LCO

Flexibility to Electrode Chemistry

Recent Results: Separation of (+) and (-) Electrodes

• Rapid process applicable whole-battery shredder residue.

• Industrially scalable.

• Feasible with use of patented process technology.

Graphite XRD

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Innovative Processing for Up cycling of Nickel-rich NMC

NMC//Li button cells, 14-15mg pellet Rate capability and capacity retention of recycled NMC (green) matches or exceeds standard NMC

(gray)

OnTo Technology LLC

Technology Features for EV & Large Battery Business

Features

• Low temperature process.

• Easy to use – no stoichiometric measurements – REQUIRED - by other processes.

• Flexible to Li-ion electrodes.

• Very high yield, essentially quantitative.

• Fast process to new-cathode.

• US and PCT Patented with priority.

Service

• License for direct recycling.

• Support in EV planning. – recycle value.

– decrease lifetime costs.

– Increase product marketability.

• Develop Industrial Scale EV Environmnetal Services.

• Already Serving a US Based EV Manufacturer!

OnTo Technology LLC

Direct Recycling Patents

• What it is: Recovery of the entire electrode material from a battery for use as new electrode.

• Innovative: Patented Process

Technologies reinstate electrochemical activity to “spent” battery materials.

• OnTo Activities: Demonstrate proof of concept, model and develop scale 10-100x in order to achieve commercial operation.

• CKE: Initial Industrial Scale Development site for Direct Recycling.

Patent # Title

US 9,484,606 B1 Recycling and Reconditioning of Battery Electrode Materials (Sloop et al.)

US 8,846,225 Reintroduction of lithium into recycled battery materials (Sloop)

US 9,287,552 Reintroduction of lithium into recycled battery materials (Sloop)

Chinese # 2016109129500 Pending

Reintroduction of lithium into recycled battery materials (Sloop)

Chinese # 201580049244.1 Pending

Recycling Positive-Electrode Material of a Lithium-ion Battery (Sloop)

200980136414.4 Issued under Chinese Patent No. ZL200980136414.4

Recycling Batteries Having Basic Electrolytes

OnTo Technology LLC

Battery Deactivation Prototype

• Liquid CO2 at 700 psi and room temperature

• 2 x 89L (2 x 23.5 gallon). • 55 lb. Capacity

– Loose 18650 cells or battery packs.

• Extracts 90% of battery electrolyte with simple soak for 48 h.

• Yields battery shells with minimal flammability risk.

• Developed under NSF SBIR Award # 0750552.

• US Patents Issued: • #7,198,865 • #8,497,030

Discharge

Extract

Pack & Ship

(1)

(2)

(3)

Electrolyte

Neutralization/ disposal or process for reuse

Minimized Risk of Fire

Commercial Scale Agricultural Processing

with CO2 (example)

34August 2004

Anatomy of an SFE Project

Installation

• Design for extraction of oils from hops.

• Supercritical temperature and pressure.

• Stick-build, mobile, high volume.

• Example only: shows mobility, ease of construction and operation.

Acknowledgements

OnTo has received support from the following Federal Research Awards:

• US Department of Energy (DOE): – Small Business Innovation Research Award (SBIR)

#DE-SC0006336

• US National Science Foundation (NSF): – SBIR Awards #0750552, and #1448061

• Defense Logistics Agency (DLA): – SBIR Contract # SP4701-15-C-0097

OnTo Technology LLC

Contact information: Steve Sloop ssloop@onto-technology.com OnTo Technology LLC, 63221 Service Road STE F, Bend Oregon 97703

CFO and CEO hard at work

Contact information: Dr. Steve Sloop: ssloop@onto-technology.com OnTo Technology LLC, 63221 Service Road STE F, Bend, Oregon 97703 Dr. Tom Xu: tom@meecotech.com Meecotech Inc, 2734 Loker Ave West, Suite D, Carlsbad, CA 92010