Electric car battery recycling centre opens

What happens to electric car batteries when they have completed their lifespan? Johnson Controls (logo, pictured) has the answer.

The company has opened a $150million recycling centre for automotive batteries in Florence, South Carolina. It is expected to recycle an impressive 132,000 metric tons every year – that’s more than 14million lead-acid automotive batteries.

According to Johnson Controls, more than 98 per cent of the batteries are recycled. Lead and polypropylene from the batteries is reused to make more electric car batteries; while the electrolyte is transformed into sodium sulphate that can be used in detergent manufacturing, glass and textiles. Finally, the iron by-products are reused in industrial processes.

The Florence-based facility is expected to meet all of the US EPA’s standards for ambient air.

The EPA recently reduced the acceptable concentration of lead in air by a factor of 10 – down from 1.5micrograms per cubic metre to just 0.15micrograms per cubic metre. Despite this, the Johnson Controls facility is expected to offer a concentration of lead in air at less than half of the EPA standard rate.

About Paul Lucas

Paul is a freelance writer with a background in everything from motoring to finance; and holidays to women's undergarments he just writes about them, honestly! He has now sadly crept into his early 30s and seems to have forgotten everything learned at school Still, he's a green car fanatic and isn't that what counts?

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