In a groundbreaking initiative within the heartland of France’s nuclear heritage, experts are leveraging their profound nuclear knowledge for a pivotal endeavour in the nation’s energy transition – the recycling of essential materials from aging electric car batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines.
The European Union, committed to reducing its dependence on Asia for critical metals like lithium, nickel, and silver, has prioritized the expansion of its recycling capacity. This strategic move aims to narrow the gap with China, a nation already excelling in car battery recycling and blessed with substantial reserves of raw materials and refining capabilities.
For countries like France, devoid of substantial mineral resources and heavily reliant on imports, reusing these aging components holds the promise of bridging this resource gap.
The French Atomic and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA) has repurposed its research facility in Marcoule, located in the southern heartland of France, to explore innovative methods for recycling components vital to clean energy technologies. The sprawling campus, shrouded in secrecy, harbors a legacy of France’s nuclear weapons and energy programs.
The CEA, a world leader in nuclear waste recycling, is striving to recover these materials and employ them on an industrial scale. Richard Laucournet, Head of the New Materials Department at the CEA, emphasizes their focus on enhancing energy storage, conversion, transportation, and the overall efficiency of the energy transition.
“We are looking at how to store, convert and transport electricity, and how to make the energy transition efficient,” said Laucournet. “Thanks to the simulation tools developed here, we can reprocess rare earths from magnets.”
In one lab, researchers are using advanced robotic arms to cut irradiated fuel rods. These alloy sections are subjected to hot acid solutions, dissolving the metals, which can then be extracted using organic solvents and decanters. This process enables the recovery of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite from the crushed electric vehicle battery cells.
Researchers at Marcoule assert that this technique holds the potential not only for recycling fuels from future fourth-generation nuclear reactors but also for extracting rare earths from magnets. Richard Laucournet highlights the global significance of this technology, stating that there is currently “no real magnet recycling sector” in the world, except for scrap recycling in Asia.
Another innovative approach at the center involves the use of carbon dioxide to separate and inflate solar panel cells, facilitating the recovery of silicon and the silver contained within them. For wind turbine blades, the CEA employs a similar process using “supercritical water” to remove radioactivity from metals in a liquid state – a technique they’ve been refining for two decades.
Additionally, the CEA is exploring the possibility of extracting critical rare materials from radioactive waste, which contain rare and valuable metals like palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium. These materials have the potential to serve as catalysts in the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen.
Philippe Prene, Circular Economy Manager for Low-Carbon Energies at the CEA, affirms that they have successfully initiated studies in this direction. He predicts that recycled materials could ultimately satisfy 35 percent of Europe’s requirements for battery production, although he cautions that such recycling efforts will not make France and Europe entirely self-reliant.
