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As more and more electric vehicles hit the road, researchers study electric vehicle fires, battery recycling


Battery EV

Credit: Unsplash Public Domain / CC0

As more and more electric cars hit the streets in Washington, some people are concerned about their batteries catching fire — and what to do with those batteries once they can’t be charged anymore.

Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have found that EV battery fires are not as common as traditional internal combustion engine fires, says Matthew Paiss, technical advisor at PNNL, who helps ensure that electricity transport The battery is securely installed.

To figure that out, the experts looked at how many kilometers the vehicle had driven and compared it to the number of fires occurring per mile, Paiss said.

However, Paiss said, when an EV battery burns, the flame is extremely hot. There is a lot of fuel inside an electric vehicle battery because battery cell They are densely packed, he said, which means some fire departments are changing the way they put out fires with electric vehicles.

“The fire is a bit more difficult to put out, so more water is needed. If the vehicle is not in a garage or not facing a building, but possibly on the street, On fire Paiss said.

The fire department will continue to train and learn how to respond to these fires as more and more electric vehicles hit the road, he said.

In the next 20 years, electric vehicles could be the main mode of passenger transport, especially with many new rule in the Western states. In Washington, the new standards will phase out the sale of gas-powered passenger vehicles by 2035.

When the first electric cars started to age, lithium-ion battery That energy the cars can be recycled. These batteries currently have a lifespan of about 10 to 20 years.






Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

That’s why some researchers are working on how best to recycle EV batteries that no longer charge. The top two methods involve heat or water.

Jeffrey Spangenberger, who studies EV batteries at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, says one way to recycle EV batteries is to put them in a furnace.

“It’s called pyro, as in heat treatment, pyro. And organics are burned. They generate heat. You can recover that energy in the furnace,” Spangenberger said.

Lithium is released from the pyrolysis process as slag. However, currently it is cheaper to mine lithium than to remove it from the slag, he said. Other metals, such as cobalt and nickel, can be recovered to make new batteries.

The second way to recycle batteries is called hydroprocessing, Spangenberger said.

“You usually shred a battery to release different materials, and then you put it in acid. You get rid of all the non-metallic components. So there’s plastic in it. You have a liquid soup of ingredients. metal ions,” Spangenberger said.

With hydroprocessing, recyclers can recover individual metals. New batteries can be created from those elements.

Currently, Spangenberger said, it is expensive to recycle EV batteries, but the researchers are working to expand the process. In addition, federal infrastructure bills would also increase battery recycling as the electric vehicle industry grows, he said.

Furthermore, recycling will help with U.S. battery production because most EV battery components are mined in other countries, he said. Recycling an infinite number of EV batteries will alleviate supply chain problems, he said.

Quote: As more and more electric vehicles hit the streets, researchers studying electric vehicle fires, battery recycling (2022, November 1) retrieved November 1, 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news /2022-11- electro-vehicles-road-ev-battery .html

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