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Cost modelling and key drivers in lithium-ion battery recycling

Nature Reviews Clean Technology volume 1, pages 656–670 (2025)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 30 September 2025

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Abstract

As the global deployment of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) accelerates, efficient and cost-effective recycling strategies are becoming critical to ensure material circularity and supply security. However, although the technical principles of LIB recycling are broadly understood, the economic modelling of recycling processes remains fragmented. In this Review, we examine how recycling costs are assessed across pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical and direct recycling routes. Profit margins can vary from US$0.4–3.3 kg−1 (hydrometallurgy) and US$0.5–4.0 kg−1 (pyrometallurgy) to US$2.0–14.4 kg−1 (direct recycling), depending on the process conditions, the cost categories considered and the number and type of recovered products. Models reflect the battery chemistry, scale and regional context. However, many models omit key cost elements such as transport, disassembly or capital expenditures, leading to a general underestimation of costs. These modelling inconsistencies hinder comparability and might misrepresent the economic potential of emerging technologies. Thus, more transparent, geographically diverse and scale-sensitive cost assessments are needed to guide future research and support informed decision-making in industry and policy, especially in light of evolving battery chemistries and regulatory demands.

Key points

  • Recycling costs of lithium-ion batteries can vary from US$1.64 kg−1 to US$22.4 kg−1 depending on the route, feedstock and scale.

  • Cost models often lack transparency and rarely provide full documentation of assumptions, input data and model parameters, limiting reproducibility.

  • Recycling cost models differ in scope: cluster-level models focus on a single process cluster (such as pretreatment, hydrometallurgy or direct recycling), whereas full-route models capture the entire value chain from the battery pack or cell to material recovery.

  • Despite the importance of capital and transport costs for industrial scalability, fixed investment and logistics are frequently omitted from both cluster-level and full-route recycling models.

  • To support industrial planning and regulation, future cost models should be transparent and open-source, and include evolving battery chemistries, regional differences and scale effects.

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Fig. 1: Lithium-ion battery end-of-life value chain.
Fig. 2: Costs, revenues and profits of lithium-ion battery recycling.
Fig. 3: Cost structure of lithium-ion recycling.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant number 03XP0537A (project ‘ProRec’). The authors used ChatGPT with GPT-4 from OpenAI for language editing of earlier drafts of this manuscript.

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    Lisa Schlott, Moritz Gutsch & Jens Leker

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L.S. researched data for the article, contributed substantially to discussion of the content and wrote the article. L.S and M.G. contributed to the conceptualization of the article. J.L. supervised the work. All authors reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Schlott, L., Gutsch, M. & Leker, J. Cost modelling and key drivers in lithium-ion battery recycling. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. 1, 656–670 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00095-5

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