Challenges and prospects of automated disassembly of fuel cells for a circular economy

The hydrogen economy is driven by the growing share of renewable energy and electrification of the transportation sector. The essential components of a hydrogen economy are fuel cells and electrolysis systems. The scarcity of the resources to build these components and the negative environmental impact of their mining requires a circular economy. Concerning disassembly, economical, ergonomic, and safety reasons make a higher degree of automation necessary. Our work outlines the challenges and prospects on automated disassembly of fuel cell stacks. This is carried out by summarizing the state-of-the-art approaches in disassembly and conducting manual non-/destructive disassembly experiments of end-of-life fuel cell stacks. Based on that, a chemical and mechanical analysis of the fuel cell components is performed. From this, an automation potential for the disassembly processes is derived and possible disassembly process routes are modeled. Moreover, recommendations are given regarding disassembly system requirements using a morphological box

Design of a robotic system for battery dismantling from tablets

Due to the rapid increase in sales of mobile electronic devices, the number of batteries ending up in waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) is also rapidly increasing. According to the EU legislation, all batteries need to be removed from WEEE, which is currently done manually for tablets, posing potential safety risks for workers and resulting in high processing costs due to the labour intensity of the required dismantling operations. Therefore, a robotic dismantling system is developed in this research to automatically remove both the back covers and batteries from a mixed waste stream of tablets of different models and brands. At the outset of the design process, a total of 47 randomly collected tablets were analyzed to define the location of the battery and the required manual dismantling time. Thereafter, a robotic bending method was tested for removing the back cover. Once the battery is exposed, two different methods are tested: using a heat gun to loosen the glue that fixes the battery to the rest of the tablet and a robotic scraping method with a spatula to mechanically extract the battery. Whereas the required time for only the heating showed to be more than 120s, the results with the bending and scraping tool show that the proposed robotic dismantling system is capable of removing the back cover and battery for 63% of the tested tablets in less than 90s. However, to increase the economic viability and robustness of the proposed method to be able to cope with the high variety in tablet model designs, future work is required to develop algorithms to recognize product models to enable to define and retrieve product specific toolpaths for dismantling.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Investigation of the potential for an automated disassembly process of BEV batteries

Current electric vehicle battery recycling processes often begin with the manual dismantling of the battery packs. In consideration of occupational safety and in view of the increasing sales of electric vehicles, an automated dismantling of batteries has to be investigated. Therefore, different manufacturers' battery pack designs are examined first and especially the common joining elements are determined and characterized. The results show a high diversity between the individual systems, which influences the potential for automation. Based on these investigations, a possible layout of an automated dismantling cell is developed

Towards Reuse and Recycling of Lithium-ion Batteries: Tele-robotics for Disassembly of Electric Vehicle Batteries

Disassembly of electric vehicle batteries is a critical stage in recovery, recycling and re-use of high-value battery materials, but is complicated by limited standardisation, design complexity, compounded by uncertainty and safety issues from varying end-of-life condition. Telerobotics presents an avenue for semi-autonomous robotic disassembly that addresses these challenges. However, it is suggested that quality and realism of the user's haptic interactions with the environment is important for precise, contact-rich and safety-critical tasks. To investigate this proposition, we demonstrate the disassembly of a Nissan Leaf 2011 module stack as a basis for a comparative study between a traditional asymmetric haptic-'cobot' master-slave framework and identical master and slave cobots based on task completion time and success rate metrics. We demonstrate across a range of disassembly tasks a time reduction of 22%-57% is achieved using identical cobots, yet this improvement arises chiefly from an expanded workspace and 1:1 positional mapping, and suffers a 10-30% reduction in first attempt success rate. For unbolting and grasping, the realism of force feedback was comparatively less important than directional information encoded in the interaction, however, 1:1 force mapping strengthened environmental tactile cues for vacuum pick-and-place and contact cutting tasks.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, Submitted to Frontiers in Robotics and AI; Human-Robot Interactio

Semi-Autonomous Behaviour Tree-Based Framework for Sorting Electric Vehicle Batteries Components

The process of recycling electric vehicle (EV) batteries currently represents a significant challenge to the waste management automation industry. One example of it is the necessity of removing and sorting dismantled components from EV battery pack. This paper proposes a novel framework to semi-automate the process of removing and sorting different objects from an EV battery pack using a mobile manipulator. The work exploits the Behaviour Trees model for cognitive task execution and monitoring, which links different robot capabilities such as navigation, object tracking and motion planning in a modular fashion. The framework was tested in simulation, in both static and dynamic environments, and it was evaluated based on task time and the number of objects that the robot successfully placed in the respective containers. Results suggested that the robot’s success rate in accomplishing the task of sorting the battery components was 95% and 82% in static and dynamic environments, respectively

Challenges and Solutions of Automated Disassembly and Condition-Based Remanufacturing of Lithium-Ion Battery Modules for a Circular Economy

This paper proposes a systematic approach for both, a remanufacturable battery module and an automated remanufacturing station. In the beginning the joints in a battery module are investigated and categorized, followed by an evaluation of alternatives. Based on the evaluation, a novel battery module and an automated remanufacturing station are presented. As a result, it is possible to replace an individual battery cell while maintaining the integrity of the battery module, leading to a value added product that can be brought back to market

Techno-economic assessment of an automated lithium-ion battery module disassembly process: investigating the optimal level of automated disassembly.

The use of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has rapidly increased recent years, mainly due to the global adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). Continued growth is expected, which will inevitably lead to a large amount of battery waste. Proper recycling is then required to reinsert valuable raw materials to the value chain. Recycling of LIBs are normally initiated by disassembly, followed by various mechanical and metallurgical treatments. Disassembly is one of the most labour intensive steps when recycling LIBs. Considering the expected growth, a fully automated disassembly process will be required. However, this represents a non-negligible investment. Determining the optimal disassembly level prior to recycling is a crucial step that must be considered before investing in automated disassembly. Currently, most EV LIBs are only disassembled to module level prior to recycling. Instead, disassembly to cell level could produce greater purity material streams and less material to handle downstream. The question is whether or not it is economic viable to carry out deeper robotic disassembly down to cell level instead of stopping at module level. This study presents a techno-economic assessment of a robotic module disassembly line, furnishing guidelines on the necessary degree of automation in EV LIB disassembly. Different case study scenarios are proposed, demonstrating that investments in a robotic module disassembly line could be profitable

Techno-economic assessment of an automated lithium-ion battery module disassembly process: Investigating the optimal level of automated disassembly

The use of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has rapidly increased recent years, mainly due to the global adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). Continued growth is expected, which will inevitably lead to a large amount of battery waste. Proper recycling is then required to reinsert valuable raw materials to the value chain. Recycling of LIBs are normally initiated by disassembly, followed by various mechanical and metallurgical treatments. Disassembly is one of the most labour intensive steps when recycling LIBs. Considering the expected growth, a fully automated disassembly process will be required. However, this represents a non-negligible investment. Determining the optimal disassembly level prior to recycling is a crucial step that must be considered before investing in automated disassembly. Currently, most EV LIBs are only disassembled to module level prior to recycling. Instead, disassembly to cell level could produce greater purity material streams and less material to handle downstream. The question is whether or not it is economic viable to carry out deeper robotic disassembly down to cell level instead of stopping at module level. This study presents a techno-economic assessment of a robotic module disassembly line, furnishing guidelines on the necessary degree of automation in EV LIB disassembly. Different case study scenarios are proposed, demonstrating that investments in a robotic module disassembly line could be profitabl