Safer metal recycling for the battery industry

Chalmers University of Technology

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Mark Foreman, Associate Professor, Division of Energy and Materials,Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

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Credit: Chalmers University of Technology

The metals used in batteries are a valuable, finite resource that are not readily available in Europe. There is therefore a huge desire to recycle as much as possible. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have come up with a new way of recycling the metals found in rechargeable batteries, with less harmful effects for people and the environment, whilst maintaining the same level of efficiency. Their study investigates how fossil-based chemicals used in metal recovery can be replaced with alternatives produced from renewable biomass.

A rise in global energy consumption and the need to use more sustainable energy systems wherever possible is driving an increasing demand for energy storage systems, such as batteries. At the same time, the need to recover and recycle the metals used in batteries – including copper, cobalt, lithium and manganese – is also increasing. These materials are essential for the green transition, and several of them are included in the EU Critical raw materials act.

Critical raw materials are “raw materials of high economic importance for the EU, with a high risk of supply disruption due to the concentration of their sources and the lack of any good, affordable substitutes”. For example, China supplies 100 per cent of the EU’s demand for heavy rare earth elements. The EU is working to diversify and secure its supply of critical raw materials, and recycling is playing a key role.

Batteries require high degree of purity

To make metal recovery both efficient and economically viable, metals must be separated and purified before they can be reused. The production of batteries and other high-value products often requires metals of a high degree of purity.

In some cases, using higher-purity raw materials can lead to the exclusion of less favorable materials (for both the environment and human safety), such as mercury. For example, in the past, the shelf life of non-rechargeable batteries was extended by adding mercury to the zinc electrode. However, with higher-purity zinc, it is possible to produce an equally stable battery that is free from mercury.

“If we do not separate and purify materials during recycling, their quality will gradually deteriorate. Ultimately, we risk ending up with materials that can no longer be used in advanced applications, and the whole purpose of recycling is lost,” says Mark Foreman, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers.

Alternatives for existing production lines

Solvent extraction is a widely used method (read more below) for separating and purifying metals in battery recycling, as well as in mining, the nuclear industry and in other industrial sectors. Today, the diluents used in these processes are typically produced from fossil-based feedstocks.

“In our study, we wanted to demonstrate that renewable biomass, for example, by-products from the forestry industry, can be used to produce alternative diluents. In this case, we investigated two aromatic compounds that could also be used directly in existing industrial production lines,” says Daniel Keywan Hoffmann, PhD student at Chalmers and first author of the study.

The study shows that the aromatic compounds perform just as well as conventional commercial alternatives in the extraction of several important metals. Furthermore, they could be implemented directly in existing industrial production lines.

“It is expensive for industry to rebuild factories or invest in entirely new infrastructure to improve sustainability. If the existing processes and equipment can be used while simply switching to a significantly safer chemical, the barrier to change becomes much lower and far less expensive,” says Daniel Keywan Hoffmann.

The aromatic compounds are safer to handle

Large-scale metal recovery operations use substantial quantities of diluents, which often need to be handled by people, so safety considerations are of particular importance. The researchers found that the two aromatic compounds used in the study have higher flash points and lower volatility than several commercially used alternatives. This means a lower risk of fire and reduced exposure to hazardous substances for workers in recycling facilities.

Some commercial chemicals used frequently for these processes today are particularly potentially harmful, since they form a group of neurotoxins when they degrade. These neurotoxins can have harmful effects in the brain and nervous system of humans and animals, and many conventional diluents are converted into these in the body.  The new aromatic compounds which have been tested in this study cannot form these neurotoxins when they degrade.

“If we can achieve the same performance as current processes while reducing risks to people and the environment, that represents a significant benefit for everyone,” says Mark Foreman.

Aim to inspire industry

The researchers emphasise that manufacturing processes would need to be optimised, and the availability of renewable feedstocks increased, to make the approach cost-effective.

“We hope our work can inspire industry to think differently. Sustainable alternatives do not necessarily require starting from scratch. In many cases, replacing certain chemicals may be enough,” says Daniel Keywan Hoffmann.

 

 

More about the study:

• Read the study in RSC Sustainability: Safer aromatic process diluents for solvent extraction of critical metals from spent batteries
• Liquid–liquid extraction, also known as solvent extraction, uses an organic phase consisting of:
  a) A complex-forming molecule (extractant) that binds the metal to be extracted.
  b) A diluent in which the extractant is dissolved, such as kerosene.
• The primary role of the diluent is to dissolve the extractant and create a usable organic phase, as extractants cannot generally be used on their own.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have come up with a new way of recycling the metals found in rechargeable batteries, with less harmful effects for people and the environment, whilst maintaining the same level of efficiency. This study investigates how fossil-based chemicals used in metal recovery can be replaced with alternatives produced from renewable biomass. This image shows how the new biobased dilutents are created. The feedstock molecules (which can come from forestry waste and waste from bioalcohol production) are shown in blue on the left. These pass through sulfuric acid and create the new biobased dilutents, seen on the right in grey and white, which can be used for safer battery recycling. 

Credit

Chalmers University of Technology | Mark Foreman

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Journal

RSC Sustainability

DOI

10.1039/D6SU00096G 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Safer aromatic process diluents for solvent extraction of critical metals from spent batteries

 

CO₂ instead of oil: Novel technology for more climate-friendly chemical processes

KIT honors project on the use of CO₂ as a climate-friendly resource and other innovation projects for everyday life and industry

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

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The Neuland Innovation Contest established by KIT honors application-oriented projects with a high practical potential.  (Sandra Göttisheim, KIT)

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Credit: Sandra Göttisheim, KIT

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is primarily considered a greenhouse gas, but it also contains carbon—an important component of basic materials used in the chemical industry. Acetate, which can be used, for example, in the production of plastics, paints, or solvents, is one of these substances. Researchers at KIT have developed a new technology as part of the PEReCO₂ project, that converts CO₂ into such basic materials. Instead of using up newly extracted fossil raw materials, the technology allows to recycle CO₂. The system can be scaled up for the use in large plants, too. It uses electricity and specific copper materials that enable the chemical reaction to run efficiently, making the technology suitable for use at an industrial scale.

 

New Method to Reduce Emissions and Oil Consumption

“The process has several advantages for a more sustainable chemical production. It works without fossil raw materials, does not compete with food production, and enables direct value creation from CO₂,” said Professor Matthias Franzreb, Head of the Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biosystems at KIT’s Institute of Functional Interfaces. “It allows us to contribute to a sustainable chemical industry, which is oriented toward circular economy.” The team’s aim is to further develop the technology so that it can be used by companies or commercialized by spinoffs.

 

Cooling without Power Consumption

In addition to PEReCO₂, KIT honored two other projects that were submitted to the Neuland Innovation Contest. Second prize went to Universe Refrigerator, while GreenGen-OME was ranked third.

Universe Refrigerator is a cooling system that operates without electrical power. The team led by Dr. Gan Huang and Haiying Cheng from KIT’s Institute of Microstructure Technology leverages the principle of radiative cooling: A suitable material emits heat to the sky, thereby providing a cooling effect – even during solar irradiation. The modular system is particularly well suited to applications without a stable power supply, such as food storage.

 

New Methods for Sustainable Everyday Chemicals

The aim of the GreenGen-OME project is to develop methods that allow the production of more eco-friendly chemical substances for plastics, fuels, or solvents. The team led by Professor Jörg Sauer from KIT’s Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology focuses on chemical reactions that can be used to adapt the properties of substances to suit different industrial requirements. The researchers are currently working on upscaling the method from the lab environment to the industrial level. 

 

More Efficient Production of Future Batteries

The technology transfer prize was awarded to the EXINOS2 project. The team led by Stefan Gartzke, Sebastian Schabel, and Professor Jürgen Fleischer from the wbk Institute of Production Science has developed a novel continuous process for manufacturing batteries that can be used for applications such as electric vehicles, making their production faster, more flexible, and more efficient. 

 

About the Neuland Innovation Contest

The annual Neuland Innovation Contest has been established by KIT to support ideas that have a potential for practical implementation. Researchers and doctoral researchers can submit their projects. Besides a prize money of EUR 10,000 altogether, they are given support for transferring the results of their research to industry and the general public. 

 

In close partnership with society, KIT develops solutions for urgent challenges – from climate change, energy transition and sustainable use of natural resources to artificial intelligence, sovereignty and an aging population. As The University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT unites scientific excellence from insight to application-driven research under one roof – and is thus in a unique position to drive this transformation. As a University of Excellence, KIT offers its more than 10,000 employees and 22,800 students outstanding opportunities to shape a sustainable and resilient future. KIT – Science for Impact.

AI data centres are becoming the workhorses of the internet, but cities aren’t sure what to do with them. Here’s why

Joshua Freeman

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Published: July 05, 2026 

The Intelligent Retail Lab is located in the Walmart Neighborhood Market, Wednesday, April 24, 2019, in Levittown, N.Y. Shoppers can see the massive data center where nine cooling towers, 100 servers and other computer equipment that process the 1.6 terrabytes of data per second that is coming from cameras, and other equipment. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Around two months ago, Coun. Dianne Saxe noticed an unusual warning issued by a regulatory organization tasked with protecting North America’s power grid from problems.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issued an urgent level-3 alert over dangers posed to the power grid by “computational load entities” – a fancy term to refer to users such as AI data centres, cryptocurrency mining operations and traditional data centres.

The organization warned that hydro customers in the mushrooming new category “generally did not have sufficient processes, procedures, or methods to address risks associated with computational loads” and urged them to take a number of steps to urgently address the vulnerabilities they pose to the grid.

Saxe, who is also a member of the Toronto Hydro Board and someone who has followed energy and sustainability issues for many years as an environmental lawyer, likened the warning to a “3-alarm fire” from an organization that does not typically send up flares.

She said the organization was “basically arm-waving to say we urgently, immediately need much better management of data centres.”

The risks have also included costly fires associated with data centres in the past, Saxe said.

She pointed out network equipment designed to protect AI data centres from power fluctuations can have a massive impact on the grid even from small fluctuations, such as a car crashing into an electric pole.

“Your lights wouldn’t even flicker (from the disturbance), but when you have six or seven large data centres in the same area, and they all sense the same little fluctuation at the same time, and they all trip off in 20 milliseconds (they can) bring the whole grid down,” she said.

The warning from NERC prompted Saxe to bring the matter to council.

Coun. Dianne Saxe is pictured in this file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

She drafted a motion last month urging Toronto to sign on to the Global Urban Data Centres Pact, which aims to set a vision for data centres that is sustainable and safe. While the motion was ruled out of order at council, Mayor Olivia Chow nonetheless agreed to sign the pact on behalf of the city.

City staff in Toronto were already studying the issue of AI data centres after Saxe and Coun. Rachel Chernos Lin brought a motion back in March asking for greater clarity on whether AI data centres, which can consume enormous amounts of power, should have special zoning requirements instead of being included in as-of-right industrial zoning.

It noted “growing concern in our communities,” in particular over questions around electricity and water consumption, increased pollution and other infrastructure impacts.

“The City of Toronto needs to be proactive, thinking about how best to manage data centres,” Saxe told CP24.com. “They’re an important opportunity. They’re also a serious risk.”

The motion asked city staff to examine all the potential impacts, as well as existing rules and regulations and report back to council early next year with recommendations about a possible regulatory framework for AI data centres.

Toronto is not the only municipality looking at the issue.

Recently, Hamilton City Council voted to put the brakes on new data centres that power AI to give city staff an opportunity to review some of the ways the facilities impact the municipality.

Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann, who led the charge, said in an open letter before the vote, that she opposes AI data centres as they currently operate.

“I believe there are too many negative environmental and human health impacts that must be comprehensively addressed through stringent regulations and criteria from all three levels of government, as well as robust public engagement before they are approved in our communities,” Nann wrote.

Electricity usage

Many people might not realize that their favourite AI program actually requires a tremendous amount of computing power and therefore, a great deal of electricity. The demand for that computing power has resulted in the rapid growth of AI data centres and Canada has been at attractive location because of relatively cheap power costs, a mostly cool climate and access to renewable energy.

At the moment, most municipalities do not have special rules for data centres, with most of them simply falling under general industrial zoning bylaws. But that’s a problem given how they have changed over the years, says Mark Daley, a professor of computer science and chief AI officer at Western University.

“Data centres used to be sort of a moderate power draw, and then they got up to the level of a large industrial facility, and now they’re becoming in some power grids the primary users of electricity on that grid that’s continuing to scale,” Daley says.

“So you can imagine if you are a municipality with a fixed power infrastructure, as we mostly have in Canada, you have to think carefully about how you allocate that infrastructure.”

People hold signs during a rally before participating in a march to protest the opening of AI data centres, in Vancouver, on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Telus is moving forward with two new AI data centres in Vancouver and the expansion of an existing facility in Kamloops. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

With high electricity usage, there have been concerns that AI data centres could drive up the cost of power for domestic consumers, but also strain the power grid to the point of failure.

A recent fire at a downtown Toronto transmission station knocked out power to much of the core and highlighted the interconnectedness – and vulnerability – of the grid.

Still, experts point out the data centres need to be located in relatively close proximity not only to the infrastructure needed to support them, but to the expertise that is required to build and maintain them. Typically, that means large metropolitan areas.

Industry says there’s a way to balance needs

A major new data centre being constructed by Microsoft in North York highlights some of the challenges and opportunities in meeting the infrastructure demands required to support AI data centres within cities.

Located at the site of a former Lowe’s store in the area of Islington Avenue and Rexdale Boulevard, the two-storey facility will draw power directly from Hydro One, by tunneling under Hwy. 401 to reach new junction stations designed to draw power directly from overhead transmission wires.

The project, which has undergone multiple revisions with city staff since 2022, is nearing completion.

An artist's rendering of a new Microsoft data centre planned for Toronto is pictured.

In a statement to CP24.com, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company believes communities “should share in the benefits of AI infrastructure, not bear the costs” and pointed out it is paying for the infrastructure upgrades needed to support the new facility.

“We work closely with utilities, system operators, and regulators to plan energy needs well in advance and invest in efficient infrastructure,” the statement read.

“Through our Community-First AI approach, announced in April, we are committed to ensuring our data centres do not increase electricity prices for Canadians by paying the full cost of infrastructure required to support our operations, including substations and other grid assets dedicated to provincial utilities.”

Microsoft also pointed out it designs its data centres with energy and water efficiency in mind, with its facilities relying primarily on outside air for cooling and using water less than five percent of the year. Rainwater harvesting further offsets demand.

“Data centres are critical infrastructure that supports the digital services Canadians rely on every day - from video calls and online banking to AI-powered tools, education, research, and government services,” the company said. “They also create opportunities for broader economic growth by enabling innovation, helping organizations adopt AI, and supporting local jobs and skills development.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS), a major player in cloud computing, including AI services, did not respond to specific questions about industry regulation, but noted it has “established data centre regions” in the Montreal area since 2016 and in the Calgary area since 2023.

The company, which boasts tens of thousands of Canadian customers, pointed to a fact sheet that said it is “proud to be committed to Canada’s Net Zero Challenge as of 2026” and highlighted a number of measures it takes to mitigate the environmental impact of the centres.

“Our sustainability work includes enhancing energy efficiency, transitioning to carbon free energy, reducing embodied carbon, using water responsibly, driving a circular economy, and enabling sustainability for customers,” the company says on a site dedicated to its sustainability efforts.

“At AWS, we focus on efficiency across all aspects of our infrastructure. We use industry standard metrics to measure efficiency and seek the optimal balance of energy and water use.”

According to the company, AWS uses no water to cool its Montreal data centres 95 per cent of the year and 99 per cent of the year in Calgary, using free-air cooling instead.

Environmental impact

There’s also the question of where the electricity is coming from.

Eric Miller is director of the Ecological Footprint Initiative at York University, – a multidisciplinary group of scholars, students and organizations working to advance understanding of the world’s ecological footprint and biocapacity. He says that where a data centre is situated can make a huge difference.

When the Ecological Footprint Initiative looked at where their data was stored within Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) network of data facilities, he says, they found it was primarily located at a facility in the U.S. that relied on fossil fuel-heavy electricity.

“It so happens that AWS has a data centre off the south shore of Montreal, which is Hydro Quebec-fed,” Miller says. “We crunched the numbers and found out we could, by shifting our data use to that centre, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 87 per cent.”

Luckily AWS allows customers to select the facility where they would like their data primarily to be hosted and the Ecological Footprint Initiative made the switch.

The anecdote highlights some of the environmental concerns around data centres, but also demonstrates that decisions around data centres offer opportunities to make better choices while still acknowledging the need for what they provide.

“It’s kind of like voting with your dollars a little bit,” Miller says.

Provincial guidelines unclear

Local officials have said it would help to have provincial guidance as they seek to set local rules for AI data centres, but requirements at the provincial level remain unclear.

The Ontario government has said it plans to make the province “a world-leading AI jurisdiction,” noting in the latest budget that Ontario was already home to about 100 AI data centres as of 2025.

The budget also said the government plans to “ensure the province has the digital and grid-ready energy infrastructure required for next-generation innovation” as part of a comprehensive AI strategy expected to be unveiled this summer.

Legislation passed last year, the Protect Ontario by Securing Affordable Energy for Generations Act, allows the province to set out certain criteria that data centres must meet before connecting or reconnecting to the electricity grid.

“This ensures Canadian data stay in Canada, protected from misuse,” the government said in the budget.

However the legislation does not stipulate exactly what criteria the data centres must meet.

Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli delivers remarks during a press conference in the facilities of vaccine producer Sanofi, in Toronto on Thursday, May 30, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey

Ontario’s Ministry of Energy referred questions about AI data centres and their impact on the grid to the office of Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli.

“Our government is ensuring that any investment made in the province delivers lasting prosperity for Ontario’s workers, businesses, and economy. No digital infrastructure project will proceed unless it contributes to the local economy and the company commits to paying the full cost of energy,” Fedeli’s spokesperson, Jennifer Cunliffe, said in an email.

She said legislation passed by the province provides “clear guardrails and gives Ontario the authority to prevent projects from connecting to the grid if they fail to meet these expectations.”

There was no response to a follow-up email asking where those guardrails are detailed.

Staff in Hamilton and Toronto are expected to report back to their respective city councilsnext year with recommendations for specific guidelines around AI data centres.

Joshua Freeman

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Journalist, CP24.com

New technology could improve energy efficiency in AI data centers

National Science Foundation grant supports accelerating electrical engineering patents to commercial market

Binghamton University

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Pritam Das, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Binghamton University, State University of New York, photographed at his laboratory in the Engineering and Science Building.

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Credit: Binghamton University, State University of New York

Artificial intelligence is increasingly a part of our everyday lives, and tech companies are building more data centers to accommodate the spike in computer processing.

Meeting the demands from thousands of new machines plugged into the power grid can be tricky, so promoting energy efficiency has become more important than ever.

Through his research at Binghamton University, Associate Professor Pritam Das has developed technology that could help. Now, thanks to a program supported by the National Science Foundation, he’s hoping to get it out to the marketplace.

Das — a faculty member at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering — has one patent issued(opens in a new window) and another one pending(opens in a new window). He recently received $100,000 from the University’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Discovery (EXCEED) program, supported by an NSF Accelerating Research Translation (ART) grant. He plans to use these funds for prototyping, data collection, and the evaluation of the Binghamton University inventions, to encourage a startup company to build a commercial model for industry partners.

As AI data centers proliferate and scale, and AI hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud push for increased performance, challenges have emerged in powering critical AI graphics processing units (GPUs). Moore’s law — which for many years promised that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every two years — has reached its limit. Also, physical CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) transistors — which are the building blocks for modern electronics — measuring smaller than 4 to 7 nanometers are not currently viable.

As a result, GPU and AI processor designers aim for higher computing ability for all usable area, but managing heat and power becomes paramount. Modern chips are said to be power-limited, not area-limited, and designers are aggressively working to push transistor power to 1 volt and even as low as 0.5 volt. 

“Because we cannot make the transistor any smaller, we need to reduce the voltage that these chips handle or operate from,” Das said. “Traditionally, it has been 5 volts or 3.3 volts, and now chipmakers are looking below 1 volt. As the voltage is reduced, it allows electronics packaging in a more dense way.”

However, Ohm’s law — the fundamental principle outlined by physicist Georg Ohm in the early 19th century — dictates that lowering the voltage requires more current for the same amount of computing power, and AI’s ever-increasing computing demands only make those equations more complex. 

There are plans to increase the voltage on the DC distribution bus from 12 to 48 volts, which leads to 16 times less ohmic power loss and significantly reduces a data center’s thermal stress and energy consumption. 

These two changes require a fundamental technology shift for point-of-load converters (POLc), which are the small DC-DC converters that sit closest to the ultra-low voltage GPUs and power them from the 48-volt DC current.

Traditional point-of-load converters for GPUs rely on multiple stages of DC-DC power conversion, reducing their efficiencies to 80%. That means for every 100 watts delivered, about 20 watts is lost as heat. 

“These point-of-load converters are placed very close together, and those processors produce a lot of heat while they are computing,” he said. “You don't want to add to that thermal problem with less efficiency from the power conversion, because wherever efficiency drops, it also becomes heat, and that heat needs to be managed properly by a thermal cooling system.”

Das’ solution is a new kind of point-of-load converter to better step down the power in a single stage. A laboratory prototype achieved 10-12% higher efficiency for all load conditions and doubled the slew rate, which measures how fast the power conversion happens.

“You need to deliver that current at a very fast pace, just like our brain needs a lot of brain food when it is working,” he said. “AI needs that food very quickly as it is computing.”

Das and PhD student Tuhin Sasmal’s current patent covers this single-stage power conversion from 48 volts to 1 volt(opens in a new window), and the pending patent would allow manufacturers to package the converter as close as 5 millimeters to the microchip(opens in a new window) — about the thickness of a bar of chocolate.

NSF’s ART grant supports programs like EXCEED to help institutions of higher education in building capacity, infrastructure, and training to accelerate research translation, strengthen technology transfer, and create sustained economic and societal impacts across the U.S.

“It is incredible to be able to support technologies like Professor Das’ POLc patents through EXCEED, so these projects can more quickly address real-world problems,” said Kathryn Cherny, senior program manager for the University’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships. “These problems are not theoretical, and neither are the impacts of Binghamton innovation.”