Economically Viable “Green” Carbon Anodes for Lithium-ion Batteries from Recycled Scrap Tires

The technical objective of this technical collaboration small business voucher (SBV) proposal was to develop methods at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to reduce the surface area and impurity contents present in the recovered carbon from scrap tires. Recycled tires have been used to make low-cost carbon anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIB) with a cost-reduction of over 11-12%. Graphite is being used as the anode in LIBs. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has successfully recovered carbon composites from recycled tires with a yield of over 50% and demonstrated the electrochemical performance in a coin lithium ion cell configuration as an active anode material better than commercial graphite anode batteries [1]. ORNL has tailored the morphology of carbon powders from shredded recycled tires using a sulfonation process followed by pyrolysis to produce a highly value-added product and demonstrated its feasibility in LIBs. ORNL developed the methods to reduce impurities and surface area and provided carbon to Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL) for detailed characterizations including lithium-ion battery testing. This SBV pilot project will also provide R&D infrastructure to FWD:Energy, Inc. (FWD) to establish a pre-pilot process to scale-up the synthesis of carbon composites from recycled tires and illustrate a high value commodity for anodes in large format LIBs.