Lithium-Ion Batteries Help Power Civilizations, But How Can They Be Recycled?

More and more, civilization runs on lithium-ion batteries - tiny ones in our phones, huge ones in our electric cars. But when those batteries break or wear out, they mostly get thrown away. Now scientists are trying to figure out how to recycle them.

 The Holy Grail Of Lithium Batteries

Three key issues that companies are working to address are safety, energy density, and cost. Safety mainly concerns the possibility that lithium-ion batteries can catch fire if damaged. The two aforementioned stories are mostly focused on that aspect of the problem.

 The Lithium Battery Paradox: Energy vs. Environment

Procurement of raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, and graphite have a variety of environmental and safety considerations that need to be addressed to ensure ethical development practices.

 The Risks in Hoverboards and Other Lithium-Ion Gadgets

There could be a bomb in your house, and you put it there. In recent years, we have brought home a slew of new battery-powered devices, including smartphones, laptops, tablets, electronic cigarettes, electric cars, drones, hand-held vacuums and toys.

 The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction

As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required could become a major issue in its own right.

Batteries With A Less Fiery Future

Lithium-ion batteries are extremely popular because they are lightweight and pack a lot of power. But when they overheat, they can catch fire. This has been a problem in airplanes, cars and now the popular gift item, "hoverboards." The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it's investigating 37 reports of fires associated with hoverboards.

Demand for Lithium Drives Innovation

With shortages of lithium predicted and demand for the element growing, looking for new and cost-effective ways to extract it from one of our largest natural resources certainly makes sense.

How Green is Your Smartphone?

Even if you make every effort to minimize your carbon footprint, chances are your smartphone is harming the environment. The battery, for example, is likely made of lithium, a potentially toxic substance that shouldn’t be thrown out in the garbage, but often is. Almost every landfill is loaded with lithium batteries. And speaking of batteries, if yours is typical of most smartphones, it probably needs to be recharged daily, cumulatively consuming a massive amount of coal-generated electricity. Additionally, some of the most basic parts of a smartphone — such as the circuit board — are likely made with any number of hazardous substances.

Lithium ion batteries: High-tech's latest mountain of waste

Most will last for 300 to 500 full recharges (one to three years of use) before failing and ending up in your local municipal landfill or incinerator. Is that a bad thing? No... and yes.

Meet Lithium, the Future's Most Important Mineral

Once instrumental in curbing mood disorders, it's now an integral component in batteries for everything from iPhones to electric cars. No mineral is more important to tomorrow—and this quick guide will get you acquainted.

New Warnings Issued About Dangers of Lithium Batteries Shipped as Air Cargo

Safety experts, pilot representatives want a mandatory ban on any lithium battery shipments on passenger aircraft

Powerful But Fragile: The Challenge Of Lithium Batteries

"Everyone's carrying a lithium-ion battery in their pocket today," says chemical engineer Vince Battaglia at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in Berkeley, Calif. They're in cellphones, laptops, cameras — small electrical devices thrive on them. "And there's not a big issue" about them going up in flames now and then.

Toxic fluoride gas emissions from lithium-ion battery fires

Lithium-ion battery fires generate intense heat and considerable amounts of gas and smoke. Although the emission of toxic gases can be a larger threat than the heat, the knowledge of such emissions is limited. This paper presents quantitative measurements of heat release and fluoride gas emissions during battery fires for seven different types of commercial lithium-ion batteries.

Electric cars aren’t just vehicles. They’re big batteries

To get more Americans in electric vehicles, we all need to realize they can do much more than just get us around.

Lithium Battery Fires Are Threatening Recycling as We Know It

People are tossing old electronics in the recycling bin, and they're lighting on fire and exploding at municipal recycling centers at an alarming rate.

Lithium-ion batteries need to be greener and more ethical

Batteries are key to humanity’s future — but they come with environmental and human costs, which must be mitigated.

Saltwater is a lithium-ion battery’s worst enemy. This aqueous prototype embraces it.

Coastal flooding can cause lithium-ion fires in EVs, but a new battery breakthrough sidesteps the issue entirely.

The Battery Is Ready to Power the World

After a decade of rapidly falling costs, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery is poised to disrupt industries.

The History of Lithium Ion Batteries Is Explosive

And the future may be, too, if we don’t change things.

The rise of electric cars could leave us with a big battery waste problem

Carmakers, recyclers and tech startups are working to solve the question of how to deal with lithium-ion batteries when they wear out.

We need safer ways to recycle electric car and cellphone batteries

Lithium-ion batteries call for an end-of-life makeover.

When Your Amazon Purchase Explodes

Shoddily made lithium-ion batteries can cause serious injury and even death. How do they keep ending up in consumers’ hands?