Powering Tomorrow Sustainably: The Urgent Need for Lithium Battery Reusing and Recycling

From powering electric vehicles and mobile devices to enabling large-scale renewable energy storage, lithium-ion batteries have become the unsung hero of our transition to a decarbonized world. But as the world races ahead in electrification, a quieter yet equally urgent transformation is taking place — one that deals with what happens after the battery’s first life.

At LOHUM, we are leading India and the world toward a closed-loop battery ecosystem by focusing on lithium battery reusing and recycling, empowering industries with sustainable energy storage solutions that don't compromise the environment. As we accelerate into a future dominated by electric mobility and renewable grids, the importance of an integrated strategy for battery reuse, repurposing, and material recovery cannot be overstated.

The Inevitable Wave of Retired Batteries

With electric vehicle (EV) adoption on the rise, analysts predict that by 2030, over 2 million metric tonnes of lithium batteries will be retired globally each year. The demand for EVs, stationary storage, and consumer electronics is pushing global battery production to historic highs — and yet, the world’s mining operations simply cannot keep pace. Establishing new mines is not only capital intensive and time-consuming but also increasingly unsustainable, given the environmental costs, including groundwater depletion, toxic runoff, and deforestation.

The looming supply-demand gap is not just a resource concern — it's a climate imperative. That’s why LOHUM is championing scalable, eco-efficient solutions to convert end-of-life batteries into valuable resources through reprocessing, second-life deployment, and advanced material extraction.

Why Reuse and Recycling Is the Missing Link

Electric vehicle batteries, typically retired once their capacity falls below 80% of original performance, still contain significant usable energy. These retired batteries can be repurposed into second-life applications such as grid storage, peak shaving, or even powering rural microgrids. With smart refurbishing, batteries can serve another 6 to 10 years in stationary roles.

However, eventually all lithium-ion batteries reach their true end of life, necessitating efficient recycling strategies to recover the high-value materials within — including cobalt, nickel, and lithium. A significant portion of the cost of lithium batteries (nearly 50%) comes from these minerals. More importantly, some of these — like cobalt — have volatile prices and are linked with ethically and environmentally problematic mining practices, especially in regions like the Democratic Republic of Congo.

That’s where LOHUM steps in. Our closed-loop battery model recovers these materials efficiently and feeds them back into the supply chain, reducing dependence on virgin resources and enabling a sustainable ecosystem.

The Power of Advanced Recycling: Moving Beyond Black Mass

Traditional recycling methods like pyrometallurgy, which involve burning battery components at ~1500°C, result in significant energy usage and material loss — particularly of lithium and aluminum. They also produce toxic emissions and require post-treatment of hazardous byproducts. On the other hand, hydrometallurgical techniques, while more selective, still break down battery components into simpler compounds before refinement.

However, the real game-changer lies in direct recycling — a technology LOHUM is actively exploring and scaling. Direct recycling preserves the structure of the lithium ion battery cathode precursor, refurbishing it through a process called relithiation. Not only does this method bypass energy-intensive resynthesis steps, but recent research also suggests that cathodes made through this method are more porous, charge faster, and last longer than their virgin counterparts.

This innovative approach ensures the maximum value is retained from the original battery, while also reducing lifecycle emissions and environmental impact — aligning perfectly with our mission to engineer sustainable energy from end-of-life batteries.

What Makes the Difference? Infrastructure, Intelligence, and Impact

Despite the promise, lithium battery reuse and recycling still face several systemic barriers: lack of standardization, inadequate reverse logistics, and insufficient data sharing. Policy mechanisms such as extended producer responsibility (EPR), battery labeling, and incentives for recycling infrastructure development are essential to enabling large-scale adoption.

LOHUM is tackling these challenges head-on by building India’s first end-to-end integrated battery lifecycle management infrastructure — from collection and logistics to testing, repurposing, and material recovery. Our proprietary technology stack enables intelligent diagnostics of battery health, module-level reuse, and precision recovery of battery-grade minerals.

By 2025, we aim to process over 1 GWh of battery capacity annually, with a recovery efficiency of over 95% for critical materials. Our innovations will power not just new electric vehicles, but also a more sustainable and circular energy economy.

The Global Opportunity

The global lithium-ion battery market is expected to cross USD 400 billion by 2035, and within that, the market for secondary raw materials and reused batteries is poised to explode. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, battery recycling could mitigate up to 50% of future demand for newly mined critical materials, making it a key lever for energy independence and climate action.

As China currently leads the world in battery recycling, countries like India have the opportunity to leapfrog into sustainable dominance by investing early in robust domestic recycling ecosystems. LOHUM is not just meeting this opportunity — we’re shaping it.

Reimagine. Reuse. Recharge. With LOHUM

The path to electrification must be more than fast — it must be sustainable, secure, and circular. At LOHUM, we believe in reimagining waste as a resource, in reusing what still holds power, and in recharging the global energy landscape with minimal environmental burden.

By pioneering cutting-edge technologies in lithium battery reusing and recycling and developing advanced materials like lithium-ion battery cathode precursors, LOHUM is accelerating the transition to a cleaner, smarter future — one battery at a time.

Let’s close the loop. Sustainably.

Visit us at: Critical Minerals

Originally published on: Medium