Japan develops a method to recover up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries

日本开发出从废旧电动汽车电池中回收高达 90% 锂的方法

In a ground-breaking step forward, scientists from Japan have developed a new method to recover up to 90 percent of lithium from used EV batteries – and it suddenly feels like great news on Earth Day. With electric vehicles booming worldwide, the pressure is mounting to find smarter ways to deal with old battery waste. This new technique doesn’t just recycle materials; it recovers most of them at an unbelievable rate. And if it delivers at scale, it could change how EV batteries are made and reused for years to come.

作为一项突破性的进展，日本科学家开发出了一种新方法，可以从废旧电动汽车电池中回收高达 90% 的锂——这在地球日当天无疑是一个重磅好消息。随着全球电动汽车行业的蓬勃发展，寻找更智能的方法来处理废旧电池垃圾的压力日益增大。这项新技术不仅能回收材料，还能以惊人的效率回收绝大部分材料。如果该技术能够实现规模化应用，它可能会改变未来多年电动汽车电池的制造和再利用方式。

This huge breakthrough in tech has come from a recycling facility in Japan, where engineers have managed to extract around 90 percent of lithium from used batteries. That’s a huge leap compared to traditional methods, which often recover less than 50 percent of the material, especially since it feels like a win to celebrate this Earth Day.

这一巨大的技术突破来自日本的一家回收工厂，工程师们成功地从废旧电池中提取了约 90% 的锂。与传统方法（通常只能回收不到 50% 的材料）相比，这是一个巨大的飞跃，尤其是在地球日这个值得庆祝的日子里，这显得意义非凡。

At the heart of the process is a clever chemical tweak; instead of using standard sodium hydroxide, the team swapped in recovered lithium hydroxide during recycling, which is a white powder. This helps convert battery waste, known as ‘black mass’, into high-purity lithium that can be reused in new batteries. Even better, the process isn’t just efficient, it’s better for the environment too, because researchers say it can cut carbon emissions by around 40 percent compared to conventional recycling techniques.

该工艺的核心在于一种巧妙的化学改进：研究团队在回收过程中没有使用标准的氢氧化钠，而是改用了回收的氢氧化锂（一种白色粉末）。这有助于将被称为“黑粉”（black mass）的电池废料转化为可用于新电池的高纯度锂。更棒的是，该工艺不仅高效，而且对环境更友好，因为研究人员表示，与传统回收技术相比，它可以减少约 40% 的碳排放。

This matters because lithium is one of the most critical ingredients in EV batteries, and demand is skyrocketing, as well as mining being expensive, energy-intensive, and often geopolitically complicated. By recovering lithium domestically, Japan could reduce its reliance on imports and stabilise supply chains. In fact, the country currently imports almost all of its battery minerals, so recycling at this scale could be a game-changer.

这一点至关重要，因为锂是电动汽车电池中最关键的成分之一，其需求量正在飙升，而锂矿开采不仅成本高昂、能源密集，而且往往涉及复杂的国际地缘政治问题。通过在国内回收锂，日本可以减少对进口的依赖并稳定供应链。事实上，日本目前几乎所有的电池矿物都依赖进口，因此这种规模的回收技术可能会彻底改变行业格局。

There are still challenges, though: only about 14 percent of used lithium-ion batteries in Japan currently make it into official recycling systems, meaning collection infrastructure needs a serious upgrade. But with plans to make production even more powerful by 2027 and extract tens of thousands of tons of materials annually by 2035, this innovation could be a big turning point. If adopted globally, it might not just change lives in Japan; it could save the world.

不过，挑战依然存在：目前日本只有约 14% 的废旧锂离子电池进入了官方回收系统，这意味着回收基础设施需要进行重大升级。但随着计划在 2027 年进一步提升产能，并在 2035 年前实现每年提取数万吨材料，这项创新可能成为一个重要的转折点。如果该技术在全球范围内得到推广，它不仅能改变日本的生活，甚至可能拯救世界。