An aqueous lithium-ion battery would be safer than the ones being used in EVs today. So why aren’t car companies switching to it?
In the meantime, aqueous Li-ion technology is finding niche uses where limited resilience and longevity are less of an issue such as for the military.
Aqueous Li-ion Recyclability
If the fire and explosion issues aren’t enough to give battery developers reasons to look at other improvements, recyclability to reduce pollution should be high on the list. An aqueous Li-ion battery eliminates the use of toxic materials that require invasive and destructive methods to mine and transform for manufacturing. The processes are currently so complex and expensive that recycling Li-ion batteries is largely not done by companies that use them in EVs and other devices. Only recently have specialized Li-ion recyclers emerged like Li-Cycle, a Canadian-based company that announced the building of a new European recycling hub a few days ago. Changing the technology to aqueous Li-ion would make the job of recycling companies and the reuse of the recovered materials far more attractive.
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