Featured Used traction batteries

Using existing Prius battery packs to rebuild traction batteries is viewed as a less reliable option, and one that many places no longer recommend or do. Check out this blog from Luscious Garage regarding why they stopped offering battery rebuilds: Prius Battery Rebuild: Yes or No? - Luscious Garage | Hybrid Specialists

Different options for used traction batteries are use in electrical backup or supplemental power systems for homes or businesses, modular energy storage for places with little electrical grid access, and recycling of battery components to create new and better batteries.

 

it's a policy think. what does each manufacturer do with used packs when received as core returns?

what happens to packs used by diy'ers?

what happens to packs in the salvage yards?

i doubt we have many solid answers.

 

In Japan, Toyota used old NiMH packs for peak shaving/time shifting the electric used at some dealers.

 

in a perfect world, all used packs would go back to the manufacturer for recycling. in fact, all products should be like that someday.
but like anything else, it takes financial incentives and government intervention.
otherwise, it might be cheaper and easier to chuck them in the ocean.
i don't think we have any idea what percent of packs are usefully recycled, or what the damage to the environment is.

 

While many old cells can be repurposed to a second life, they will eventually be degraded to the point that they can no longer be used as batteries. My local garbage dump accepts batteries as segregated waste, but what they do with them is beyond me. The 12V car batteries are probably actually sold for their raw materials. Used traction batteries probably just end up in landfill, to be remined in another 50 years...

 

we feel good about recycling, but my local guy told me that all the plastic goes to china where it's made into toys and shipped back to us.

 

The Electric Vehicle Battery "Can And Should Be Recycled" | CleanTechnica


Mike

 

great article, few answers.

 

"Local guy?" You mean the minimum wage worker that counts the plastic containers or weighs them? I am not doubting his credentials per se, (or what he says) but what are his total years of experience in Asian supply chain management consulting? Most of my "guys" have the majority of their experience in cooking meth ... just sayin! LOL (not meant to be demeaning).

 

So I've got 2 bad modules from my 2006 Prius. How should I dispose of them?

 

Worth $15 on eBay

 

agreed. but until we have evidence and facts to the contrary, i'm going with 'my guy'.

i did see a 60 minutes a few years ago, on what happens to electronics in china. it wasn't pretty.

 

I believe all battery types can be recycled. Incentives help in getting people to comply with recycling laws; that's why lead-acids have a core charge that gets refunded with trade in of the old battery. Toyota also had a 'bounty' on old packs. The next hurdle is in getting the cost to recycle below the cost for proper disposal.

Look for local recyclers in the yellow pages; you might get some cash for them. Otherwise, your local Toyota dealer should take them.

Plastic is cheap, and in order to recycle it, that cost has to be keep down. Recycling centers need special compactors for styrofoams. Uncompacted, the foams are too light and bulky, and will cost too much in fuel to ship and bother with recycling. Then Asia is where the majority of plastic production is to begin with.

There are other concerns with recycling plastic. They aren't like glass and metal that can be remelted and used over and over. Turning used plastic back into pellets for molders results in some degradation and chemical changes. For that reason, post consumer recycled plastic can't go into food containers. That's why milk bottles end up in composite lumber, and soda/water bottles in those cheap, reusable shopping bags. Then there is plenty of plastics that can't be recycled; looking at you soft car plastics.

That's why I think the KISS solution to used plastic will be thermal depolymerization; a process that can turn nearly any organic(chemical definition) substance into a synthetic petroleum.

 

60 minutes verses the "local guy?" I am going with the local guy in the integrity, accuracy and advice on the best food trucks any day. LOL.

 

well waste is one of USA's greatest exports. Historically ground up used cars and dead 12v batts get shipped to Japan/China. Also we do a good job building landfills here.

 

home depot has a tool battery recycling bin, you just never know where it goes after you toss it in.

 

I've seen them listed, but does anybody buy failed modules? What can they do with them?

I've considered opening one up to see if perhaps the failed cell could be replaced with a still good one from another failed module. Is the secret sauce electrolyte available to add to a recycled cell? What sort of protective gear would I need to handle the inside of a cell?