UNSW researchers in Sydney have developed a prototype battery health test that they said is 95.5% faster and more than 80% cheaper than existing methods, with potential to increase second-life battery use and keep battery waste out of landfill.

The platform is designed to work with the management systems already used by recyclers and energy storage operators, and to assess the three main lithium-ion chemistries used in electric vehicles and energy storage: lithium iron phosphate (LFP), nickel cobalt aluminum (NCA), and nickel manganese cobalt (NMC).

Current testing of used batteries relies on a full charge-discharge cycle of about 10 hours, which can lead to overheating and fire if damaged batteries endure hours of high-stress cycling, according to the researchers. It costs about AUD 120 ($85) per EV battery pack.

The UNSW prototype instead sends short electrical pulses through each cell and measures how it responds. Statistical models then estimate the battery’s health in under three minutes per cell, with lab tests showing more than 90% accuracy, the researchers said. They are targeting a cost of under AUD 25.

Huadong Mo, an associate professor at UNSW’s School of Systems and Computing, said that as more EVs reach the end of their life, Australia has a real opportunity to build a local second-life battery industry, with retired batteries supporting grid and community energy storage.

“Up to 95% of a battery’s components can be recovered, some even to make new batteries. Yet only a small fraction of lithium-ion batteries in Australia are collected for recycling today,” Mo said.

Field trials

The researchers have partnered with Malaysia-headquartered battery recycling and lifecycle management company DY New Energy on an AUD 1.3 million project to test the technology on more than 500 batteries in real-world conditions.

Before piloting it in recycling facilities and second-life storage systems, DY New Energy and UNSW will develop and test a machine-learning decision engine that recommends whether retired batteries should be reused or recycled. A battery management system module, called iBMS, will then feed those insights directly into battery systems for real-time monitoring and decision support.

Ziyang Lyu, research lead at UNSW’s School of Mathematics and Statistics, said recyclers rarely receive neatly sorted batches.

“One day it might be LFP cells, the next a mix of nickel-based chemistries from different manufacturers. We’ve designed our models to handle that variety, so the platform works with the batteries operators actually receive, not just ideal lab samples,” Lyu said.

Lyu said the technology could also help manage the growing number of batteries in stationary storage. “This technology could also support the future reuse and recycling of Australia’s rapidly expanding fleet of stationary energy storage systems, contributing to a more sustainable and circular battery economy,” he said.

The project is also supported by the Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) Lab to Market Fund. On Nov. 13, DY New Energy said it will partner with the Australian Research Council’s Fire Resilience Infrastructure, Assets and Safety Advancements (FRIASA) Hub to advance safe and scalable battery recycling.