SUSTAINABILITY
Via Creavis , Evonik has therefore been working on an alternative .
In the newly developed technology , the black mass – the mixture of lithium , cobalt , nickel and manganese left over once the plastic parts have been removed and the rest has been ground to powder - is processed into lithium leachate . This is in turn processed with a selective ceramic membrane .
Positively charged lithium cations pass from the side with the leachate and the positively charged anode through the membrane to a negatively charged cathode on the other . Here , they are combined with hydroxide to form battery-grade lithium hydroxide with almost 100 % purity , suitable for the manufacture of new batteries .
Following proof of concept in the lab , Evonik is now piloting the technology . The process is expected to be marketready in three to five years , according to Elisabeth Gorman , a lithium recycling expert at Creavis . It is predicted that recycling will contribute around 25 % of the lithium salts required for EV batteries in the longer term .
Microbial biostimulants
Evonik is also carrying out research into microorganisms that could provide cereal crops with growth-promoting atmospheric nitrogen . The company describes its new development as “ a unique combination of bacteria and biobased additives that has the potential to significantly reduce the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers ”.
Synthetic fertilisers , which currently give crops most of their nitrogen , are a big environmental and sustainability issue . They are consumed in vast quantities – nearly 114 million tonnes in 2020-1 – and they generate 1.2 tonnes of CO 2
/ tonne used , while contaminating the soil and groundwater , and generating the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide .
Under the Farm to Fork Strategy , the European Commission ( EC ) aims to reduce agricultural use of mineral fertilisers by 20 % and pesticides by 50 %. Moreover , under the new EU Fertilising Products Regulation , which came into effect on 16 July 2022 , the EC recognised biostimulants as a new class of crop protection products , paving the way for EU-wide commercialisation . The European Biostimulants Industry Council has estimated that the market is growing by 10-12 %/ year .
Cultivating biostimulants in an Evonik laboratory
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