Every End-of-Life Project Is Challenging
When the cumbersome global, regional and local regulations that govern the industrial battery management industry are combined with the variety of available battery chemistries, form factors and use cases, finding compliant and cost-effective recycling or repurposing solutions becomes extremely challenging.
In addition to direct costs related to the decommissioning process itself, each end-of-life project requires a high level of expertise and significant expenditures in the form of labor hours, which translates into monetary costs.
- Understanding the applicable regulatory framework alone could take an expert several days, as multiple aspects must be understood. As an example, for the US market these include:
- Lithium ion batteries are hazardous materials.
- Title 49, Subchapter C, of the U.S. Code of Regulations (49 CFR) governs, among others, with the transportation of hazardous materials.
- Batteries destined for recycling are considered waste and therefore subject to an additional set of regulations.
- Batteries may be hazardous waste.
- 40 CFR Parts 262-280 deal with hazardous waste.
- States may have implemented more stringent regulations on batteries/hazardous waste than the federal government.
- Researching logistics providers, preparing and sending out requests for quotes (RFQs), reviewing proposals and contracting with the best supplier are time-consuming.
- Researching recyclers, preparing and sending out RFQs, reviewing proposals and contracting with the best recycler are tedious.
- Coordinating the timing with other related activities such as craning, dismantling and scrapping battery enclosures, fire suppression, HVAC equipment disposal and more takes a lot of effort, labor and time.
- Coordinating among parties and project management demands requires complex scheduling.