01 March 2022
by Christopher Carey
Micromobility agency TIER has introduced a new partnership that gives ageing electrical lithium batteries a second life.
Partnering with German start-up Vertical Values, the agency will restore and upcycle faulty batteries from electrical scooters and assemble still-useable cells into new batteries.
Lithium batteries are prime targets for upcycling as they’re usually decommissioned from their first life once they begin to fall in need of their promised vary – regardless of nonetheless holding 70-80 p.c of their unique cost.
Ailin Huang, Head of Sustainability at TIER, stated: “We are delighted to work with Vertical Values to increase the lifespan of e-scooter batteries and have a new companion who may also help make our mild electrical automobiles much more environmentally pleasant.
“We all the time first prioritise reuse over recycling in keeping with round financial system ideas.
“Next to the e-scooter as a whole, the batteries hold the biggest opportunity for reuse as they still have over 80 percent of their capacity even after several hundred charging cycles. So, it’s absolutely critical that we scale up the reuse of batteries.”
Upcycling
Used EV batteries are usually made up of tons of of lithium-ion battery cells which have all aged in another way, and like in a hyperlink chain, the weakest aspect usually defines the potential of all the system.
Vertical Values repairs the faulty e-scooter batteries and extracts the cells from damaged e-scooter batteries. Each extracted cell is evaluated individually to find out its SoH (State of Health). Once the cells are correctly examined, they’re sorted after which repurposed and become new merchandise.
The micromobility agency says it desires to sort out the environmental burden that the mining of uncooked supplies for the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries presents, and comes amid a scarcity of the commodity.
In 2021, TIER introduced a partnership with Northvolt, a provider of sustainable, high-quality battery cells and techniques, to enhance the environmental affect of the batteries used for electric-powered automobiles.
Image: TIER