Methods for Reusing Li-Ion Cells from Discarded Battery Packs

Abstract

Most of today‘s technologies use lithium-ion batteries to store energy. Although they are more expensive than other types of batteries like NiCd or NiMH, they are more lightweight and have a lower self-discharge rate which is especially beneficial when talking about portable devices. Batteries are frequently discarded even before their useful life is over, leading to large losses of material resources, and finally, to environmental contamination. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method to evaluate and reuse Lithium-ion battery cells that have been discarded before the end of their life cycle, and that can be reused for other applications. Over 125 Li-ion battery cells were tested, and their capacity was estimated by measurements. The obtained results show that a considerable number of the tested cells were still in good operation and can be reused for other purposes.