Chapter 21 - Effects of imperfect separation of recycled cathode active materials on remanufactured lithium-ion battery performance

The direct regeneration of the cathode active materials of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has attracted attention in recent years due to its potential economic and environmental advantages over other LIB recycling methods. So far, all studies related to directly regenerating cathode active materials and remanufacturing new LIBs have focused on single pure cathode active materials, such as LiFePO4, LiMn2O4, LiNi0.33Co0.33Mn0.33O2, LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2, or LiCoO2. LIBs with different chemistries are usually recycled together in recycling facilities regardless of the type, without sorting. In practice, ideal separation cannot be achieved in the recycling process, and traces of several other cathode active materials are typically seen in the obtained cathode active materials of recycling facilities. The question is what the battery performance will be if it is made with an obtained cathode active material that contains traces of other cathode active materials. This chapter tried to answer this question through modeling and computer simulation.