the problem is rather to automate this and upscale this and I'm not sure how safe this method is. generally speaking if the EU makes battery recycling mandatory it definitely would benefit from a method where you don't have to grind the battery. I see this more as a PoC which can be further explored
Oldschool lead-acid batteries need not be destroyed to be recycled. They can, and are, easily disassembled and refurbished. For all the lithium hype, lead-acid remains a valid option for non-mobile applications where storage density is not relevant.
Where can I get cheap recycled lead acid batteries?
I like them more the li-ion because they’re more forgiving to temperature changes and have a much lower chance of catching on fire
The recycling process isn’t direct battery-to-battery. The lead from old batteries is removed, purified, dried into ingots, then sold back to battery manufacturers to make new batteries. In other words, it’s likely that every lead acid battery you buy is made from recycled batteries.
Yup, saw this in a documentary. A bunch of tourists were stranded on a desert island, but this professor had them re-energize them with some coconuts and bananas.
This isn't really a viable technology because it requires careful invasive chemical injection into risky cell chemistries. Generally, liquid electrolyte and plastic separator NMC, LFP, and LiPo should be banned for all but hobby uses when far safer solid state cells with ceramic separators exist such as those offered by ProLogium. NMC are extremely dangerous under deflagration, and LFP create huge amounts of colorless and odorless hydrogen gas that has already blown up many improperly engineered buildings that used them and assumed they were "safe". Real solid state electrolyte chemistries tend to have much slower passivation growth than liquid chemistries.
Good rundown of the process here: https://batterycouncil.org/battery-facts-and-applications/ho...
Longest 3 hour tour ever.
Lead-acid batteries do that while being charged, so it's an engineering problem to solve, not some insurmountable challenge.