Dr Laura Driscoll is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and part of ReLiB – Reuse and Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries – a multidisciplinary collaboration between the universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leicester, Newcastle, Oxford, and Imperial College London.
Since its establishment in 2018, the Faraday Institution-funded ReLiB project has been pioneering in its advocacy and development of efficient and environmentally benign strategies for the recycling of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Through numerous publications, news articles and policy documents in the UK and worldwide, ReLiB has influenced research and policy globally, promoting new ways to approach the growing challenge of recycling electronic waste.
The ReLiB project focuses on reducing the steps needed to remanufacture end-of-life (EoL) materials into new cells. The team believes that highly efficient recycling methods with exceptional material recovery rates are crucial to preventing significant long-term environmental issues and waste buildup. Using this approach, the project has fast-tracked the development of low-cost technologies for separating layers (delamination), removing unwanted materials (leaching), and reviving usable components (regeneration) – all on an industrial scale.
