28 ELECTRIFIED THERMAL PROCESSES www.advancedenergy.com Issue 3 2026 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com Powering Electrified Thermal Processes for Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Srikar Gunda, Applications Engineer at Advanced Energy Industries, Inc The global demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to surge dramatically over the next decade, fueled by the growing popularity of electric vehicles, battery backup in AI data centers, energy storage systems and consumer electronics. However, sourcing fresh lithium for these batteries is highly energy intensive. The purification technique to extract it from brine pools is complex and inefficient resulting in 70% of lithium being lost in the process. Recycling lithium-ion batteries is significantly less damaging than the virgin extraction and refining of new lithium. Recycling helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 58% and 81%, and uses between 72% to 88% less water and four-fifths less energy. As a result, as battery manufacturing capacity continues to expand, end-of-life battery recycling infrastructure must also grow to keep pace with increased demand. And that means that scaling recycling capacity efficiently and sustainably is now a critical requirement for the long-term viability of battery ecosystems. Here we examine how advances in powering electrified thermal processes such as electric furnaces and kilns can make a positive contribution to the process. The Battery Recycling Process Battery recycling involves four key phases: collection, sorting, shredding and separation to extract the battery components, with the final phase using smelting or other specialized equipment. This is a highly energy-intensive process requiring thermal treatment in kilns held at sustained high temperatures to recover valuable metals without contamination. Traditionally, such thermal treatment has been achieved using natural gas furnaces. Unfortunately, this method emits large amounts of CO2e and can compromise recovery purity if combustion byproducts enter the process. Now, however, in line with other industrial operations such as steel production and glass recycling, there is a growing trend towards adopting electrically-powered furnaces for battery recycling. Shifting to Electrified Thermal Processes The International Energy Agency projects that the volume of spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries will rise sharply from the late 2020s, with hundreds of gigawatt-hours of cells from these batteries reaching end of life annually. Recycling these batteries with gas-fired processes would produce millions of tons of CO2e emissions. Electrically heated kilns and furnaces perform the same functions as natural gas furnaces with much lower emissions. Electrification eliminates on-site combustion and enables tighter temperature control across multiple heating zones, improving both process efficiency and the purity of recovered materials. Compared to gas-fired pyrometallurgy, electrically-heated kilns, like the one shown in Figure 1, offer a simpler, cleaner process, handling intense heat while allowing controlled, continuous processing in industrial recycling or metal treatment environments. Heating elements such as nickel-iron are powered directly, with no combustion stage, enabling precise and repeatable temperature profiles. When powered by renewable electricity, electric kilns can be virtually emission-free at the point of operation. The operating temperatures for black mass thermal treatment vary by process but can reach 1,200°C. The theoretical minimum energy to heat and process one ton of black mass is in the hundreds of kilowatt-hours, though in practice total consumption is higher once heat losses, multi-zone control, and continuous operation are factored in. At these power levels, the reliability and efficiency of the electrical power delivery system are critical. While several technologies can be used for power conversion, silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs) remain the preferred solution for large-scale industrial heating due to their robustness and an efficiency that often approaches 99.5%. With recycling systems operating at the megawatt level, every percentage point of efficiency represents significant energy savings and directly translates into lower operating costs. Figure 1: Electrically heated kilns and furnaces perform the same functions as gas-fired furnaces with much lower emissions.
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