SBIR-STTR Award

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will involve development of the technology to "recycle" batteries (making new batteries from exhausted batteries) and the potential for identifying the causes for premature battery failure. In the proposed research, battery grade electrode materials including the expensive new nanomaterials will be recovered from retired lithium-ion batteries through the use of low energy, green chemical methods prefrred to smelting. The "recovered" materials will be subsequently used in making new lithium-ion batteries. The proposed technology will help the environment by reducing battery waste, and will impact electronics recycling worldwide. If successful, the proposed research will swing battery manufacturers to using recycled materials

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop process conditions, recycled materials, and recycling of new battery technologies. Phase I demonstrated that the innovative recycling process can produce materials for new batteries from spent batteries. The Phase II recycling research objectives will (1) Survey advanced battery technologies (2) Improve process efficiency and (3) Recondition used materials. Starting with spent batteries, the project recovers materials, examines utility, and develops methods for recondition based upon physical or chemical limiting issues. The anticipated result of this development is establishment of the most efficient process to recycle high performance battery materials. The proposed project establishes the most environmentally friendly advanced battery recycling technology as the solution to the next generation's significant environmental challenge. Today's battery recycling options inefficiently bury, burn, or melt spent batteries. This project addresses needs from battery-reliant industries for low-cost recycling with minimal environmental impact; the developed recycling process is the basis for jobs fundamental to the future portable electronics and electrified vehicle markets. The innovation is based upon knowledge from battery life-limiting mechanisms coupled with green-chemical processing techniques. The research actively involves undergraduate researchers at Willamette University in the development and commercialization of energy efficient technologies