Bosch Rexroth’s Automated Battery Discharge and Recycling System

As the world transitions to electric vehicles (EVs), the need for efficient and safe battery disposal and recycling becomes increasingly important. Bosch Rexroth, a leading engineering and technology company, has developed an automated system for battery discharge and recycling that is quick, safe, and environmentally friendly.

The Need for Battery Recycling

Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type of battery used in EVs. While these batteries have a long lifespan, they eventually reach the end of their useful life and need to be disposed of or recycled. The problem is that lithium-ion batteries contain toxic chemicals that can harm the environment if not disposed of properly.

Moreover, lithium-ion batteries are partially charged when they reach the end of their life, making them potentially dangerous to handle. Discharging these batteries manually can take up to 24 hours and poses a significant risk of short circuits and fires.

Bosch Rexroth’s Automated System

Bosch Rexroth has developed an automated system for battery discharge and recycling that is quick, safe, and environmentally friendly. The system is designed to handle batteries from a variety of manufacturers and can recognise different battery designs, minimising the risk of short circuits and fires.

The system works by deep discharging the batteries before shredding them. The deep discharge process takes only a few minutes, compared to 24 hours for manual discharge. The energy being sucked out of the batteries during the discharge process is used to help power the recycling system in a circular process.

Once the battery modules are fully discharged, they are chemically deactivated to ensure that no residual energy or risk of shock exists. The final step is to shred the battery and recover and recycle lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Some 95% of a battery’s chemical constituents can be recycled in this way and reused in battery production.

Benefits of Bosch Rexroth’s System

Bosch Rexroth’s automated battery discharge and recycling system offers several benefits:

1. Quick and efficient: The system can discharge eight lithium-ion batteries in less than 15 minutes, compared to 24 hours for manual discharge.

2. Safe: The system minimises the risk of short circuits and fires, making it safer to handle partially charged batteries.

3. Environmentally friendly: The system recycles up to 95% of a battery’s chemical constituents, reducing the amount of toxic waste that ends up in landfills.

4. Circular process: The energy being sucked out of the batteries during the discharge process is used to help power the recycling system, making it a circular process.

Future of EV Batteries

As EV technology continues to evolve, so too will the batteries used in these vehicles. Porsche, for example, expects a shift away from the 6:2:2 ratio of nickel, cobalt, and manganese currently most frequently used in European battery technology, towards more nickel and less cobalt and manganese.

Porsche engineers also believe that there is plenty more to come from existing technologies as the design of anodes and cathodes continues to evolve. In the medium term, Porsche expects new anode chemistry and more dense packaging of the cells to boost range to over 800 miles from a single charge (in the context of its own cars) and charge times from 5% to 80% to fall to 15 minutes.

Eventually, solid-state technology could reduce charging times even further, making EVs as convenient as traditional fuel-powered vehicles.

Conclusion

Bosch Rexroth’s automated battery discharge and recycling system offers a quick, safe, and environmentally friendly solution for disposing of lithium-ion batteries at the end of their useful life. As EV technology continues to evolve, so too will the batteries used in these vehicles. However, with Bosch Rexroth’s system in place, we can be confident that the disposal and recycling of these batteries will be efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly.