Data shortage hinders battery reuse – AI could unlock major climate benefits

Technicians remove a battery pack from an electric vehicle. Battery reuse, remanufacturing and recycling are key components of a circular battery economy.

Even though retired lithium-ion batteries often retain up to 80 percent of their capacity, significant economic value and climate benefits are currently being lost. A new article in Nature Reviews Clean Technology, involving researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, shows that the lack of reliable battery data is the main barrier to efficient battery reuse and recycling.

In the article, the researchers demonstrate how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to analyse limited and fragmented data to determine whether batteries should be reused, refurbished or recycled. At the same time, they emphasize that the problem is not primarily technical – but structural.

Photographer: Chalmers tekniska högskola

“Many batteries are taken out of service long before they are depleted. The challenge is that we lack sufficient information about their true condition, making it difficult to make the right decisions about what should be done with them,” says Changfu Zou, professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers and co-author of the study.

The researchers point out that battery data is often fragmented, difficult to access and lacks standardization. This limits the ability to fully utilize AI in current battery systems.

At the same time, the study shows that AI-based methods can provide significant benefits. In some cases, advanced battery recycling could become more than twice as profitable compared to traditional methods, while reducing energy consumption by more than 50 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by around 18 percent. On a global level, improved AI methods could save billions and significantly reduce emissions.

The researchers also highlight the potential of so-called second-life applications, where batteries that are no longer used in, for example, electric vehicles can be repurposed for energy storage systems. According to the study, such reuse could increase profitability by up to 58 percent while also reducing environmental impact.

However, achieving this will require new solutions for how data is collected, shared and used. The article points to the need for standardization, improved data infrastructure and initiatives such as battery passports – digital records that follow batteries throughout their life cycle.

“To create a more circular battery economy, we need not only better batteries, but also better ways of collecting, sharing and using data throughout the entire battery life cycle,” says Shengyu Tao, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers and first author of the study.

“We already have the technology needed to better utilize the value of batteries. The next step is to create systems that enable data to be used safely and efficiently throughout the entire life cycle,” says Changfu Zou.

The researchers argue that AI needs to be integrated across the entire battery life cycle – from manufacturing and use to reuse, recycling and remanufacturing – to enable a more circular and sustainable battery economy.

More about the research