SAM #BA-1617

Licensing Opportunity: Dimethyl Ether-Driven Rejuvenation Technology for Lithium-Ion Battery Cell Reuse

This opportunity is a technology licensing offer from the Department of Energy's Battelle Energy Alliance – Idaho National Laboratory for a dimethyl ether-driven process to rejuvenate end-of-life lithium-ion battery cells. - Technology enables direct reconditioning of spent lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells without dismantling - Restores electrochemical performance and allows direct electrode reuse - Reduces complexity, capital intensity, and reagent consumption compared to traditional recycling - No specific OEMs, vendors, or part numbers are named; technology is developed in-house - Opportunity is for licensing intellectual property and know-how, not procurement of goods or services - Targeted at commercial partners interested in integrating the technology into LIB recycling or reuse operations - Requirements include ability to deploy the process within existing battery recycling workflows - No product or service line items, quantities, or purchase requirements specified - Period of performance will be defined in the license agreement

Description

Overview

This technology introduces a dimethyl ether (DME)-driven method for rejuvenating end-of-life lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells, with the goal of restoring electrochemical performance without dismantling the cell into constituent materials. Conventional LIB recycling requires mechanical disassembly, crushing, and downstream hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical separation of anode, cathode, and electrolyte fractions, followed by reconstruction of new components. The DME-driven approach is intended to recondition spent cells so that the existing electrode architecture remains intact and reusable. By acting directly on the assembled cell, the method is designed to recover electrochemical functionality through a substantially simplified process flow. Preliminary electrochemical data generated during development supports the technical feasibility of the approach. If validated at larger scale, the technology may offer a recycling pathway that materially reduces process complexity, capital intensity, and reagent consumption compared with established LIB recycling routes.

Industry Need

Current LIB recycling infrastructure relies on multi-step processes that consume significant energy and reagents. End-of-life cells are typically shredded, with recovered black mass treated through hydrometallurgical leaching, solvent extraction, or high-temperature pyrometallurgical processing to isolate metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. These recovered materials must then be reprocessed into battery-grade precursors and reassembled into new cells. The associated unit operations introduce capital cost, operating cost, and environmental burden, and there is presently no commercialized method to recondition or rejuvenate LIB cells or their principal components for direct reuse. As domestic demand for LIB recycling capacity grows, the absence of a lower-intensity reuse pathway constrains the economic and environmental performance of the broader battery circularity sector.

Differentiation & Advantages

Operates directly on assembled cells, eliminating the need for shredding, separation, and component reconstruction steps required by conventional recycling. Designed to restore electrochemical properties of the existing electrode set, enabling direct electrode reuse rather than raw material recovery. Intended to reduce reagent and energy inputs relative to hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processing. May lower capital and operational requirements for recycling facilities by consolidating multiple unit operations into a single rejuvenation step. Addresses a recycling pathway for which no commercialized equivalent currently exists.

Potential Applications

Direct rejuvenation of end-of-life LIB cells recovered from consumer electronics, stationary storage, or transportation applications. Integration into existing LIB recycling and reuse facilities as a front-end reconditioning step prior to, or in place of, material recovery. Supporting domestic battery circularity initiatives that prioritize reuse over raw material extraction. Secondary-use battery pathways where partial capacity restoration may extend service life. Reducing the volume of cells entering energy-intensive downstream recycling streams.

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