A blueprint for sustainability: Building new circular battery economies to power the future

Batteries will play a fundamental role in our journey to Net Zero, but current markets lack the technological and policy infrastructure to ensure batteries are optimally used throughout their full life cycle, including in ‘second life’ applications. The Oxford Martin School Programme on Circular Battery Economies aims to deliver a blueprint for a truly circular battery economy, with a focus on leveraging opportunities in the Global South.

The programme is led by Paul Shearing, Professor of Sustainable Energy Engineering at the Department of Engineering Science and Director of the ZERO Institute. Here, he introduces the programme’s ambitious aims, the opportunities to address multiple challenges across the energy sector, and why Oxford is a natural hub for such crossdisciplinary work.

Professor Paul Shearing.

Transitioning to electric transport is crucial to achieve global Net Zero goals, and this movement is accelerating rapidly. But what hasn’t happened so quickly is the development of markets and infrastructure to ensure that these batteries are optimally used throughout their lifetime, including at the end of ‘first-life’ service in a vehicle.

Typically, electric vehicle (EV) batteries retain 70-80% of their initial capacity when they reach the end of their useful life in the vehicle. This means they have considerable potential for ‘second life’ purposes, such as for storage for intermittent renewable energy sources including wind and solar. Unfortunately, such ‘second-life’ purposes are currently seldom realised. Because people use their cars in very different ways, there is immense variability in the state of EV batteries once they reach the end of their first life. This leads to uncertainty over the safety and performance of used batteries, limiting their reuse. Since battery recycling remains immature, disposal of EV batteries is fuelling a waste management crisis and loss of critical materials.

Meanwhile, around 760 million people lack access to electricity, mostly living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Energy storage assets will be crucial to enable these communities to establish zero carbon energy systems. The idea of redeploying used EV batteries as energy storage solutions in emerging economies is highly attractive, since this could deliver three key aims: maximising the economic value of batteries, offsetting the embedded carbon emissions of batteries through maximal use, and supporting the energy transition in developing regions.

Our vision is to support widespread adoption of electrified transportation globally, enable a sustainable circular battery economy, and promote equitable access to clean energy solutions that benefit society.

Professor Paul Shearing

What are the main objectives for the programme?

In summary, our bold vision is to develop a theoretical blueprint for a safe and equitable ‘second-life’ battery industry. Our initial focus will be on India and Africa, where we already have strong established partnerships. We will anchor our work around three integrated multidisciplinary pillars, which will each be developed in deep consultation with stakeholders.

The first focus is to better understand the potential value of a battery circular economy between the Global North and South. This will include mapping global battery flows, quantifying environmental impacts, and evaluating techno-economic cases for battery reuse and repurposing.

Second, we will develop robust tools for battery recertification. Our aim is to establish rapid, cost-effective tests and screening tools to evaluate the state of health and the remaining useful life of EV batteries. Working with stakeholders, we will ensure that these can be easily adopted by end-users. 

Third, we will investigate how policy, institutional, and regulatory landscapes influence the uptake of second-life batteries in emerging economies, and how battery usage relates to wider energy transition goals.

Developing a circular electric vehicle battery economy mandates a multidisciplinary approach, balancing technical and social sciences, to ensure that proposed interventions are technically viable, sensitive, and people-centric.

Professor Paul Shearing

Who are you collaborating with?

The project has six academic leads. Within the Department of Engineering Science, there is myself, Professor David Howey, Professor Charles Monroe, and Associate Professor Thomas Morstyn. Between us, we have expertise across electrochemical engineering, battery materials development, systems engineering for energy storage systems, battery cell modelling, grid storage modelling, and energy market design.

From the Smith School for Enterprise and Environment, Associate Professor Radhika Khosla and Dr Anupama Sen bring policy expertise (particularly in energy consumption trajectories), urban transitions, and climate change governance in the context of development. Radhika’s position as leader of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD) at Somerville College also enables us to leverage a breadth of established contacts throughout India to reach key stakeholders.

Why is Oxford best-placed to lead on this?

We are very proud that Oxford is the birthplace of the lithium-ion battery, thanks to Professor John Goodenough’s work in the 1970s and 80s. Ever since, Oxford has been a global leader in lithium-ion battery research and has developed multidisciplinary strengths in this area.

Additionally, in Oxford- and particularly the Oxford Martin School – there is a real drive to co-develop technological solutions with stakeholders, and road-test these to ensure they are economically viable for communities. This requires integrating many different areas of expertise and Oxford is a wonderful and creative hub for that kind of work. There are not many places where you will find the concentration of expertise to enable such cross-cutting work. This is far more than, say, a chemical engineer working with a mechanical engineer, but a fully interdisciplinary approach across the entire collegiate university. 

There is uncertainty over the safety and performance of used batteries, limiting their reuse. Since battery recycling remains immature, disposal of EV batteries is fuelling a waste management crisis and loss of critical materials.

Professor Paul Shearing

How will the programme help build future capacity, for instance in training new researchers?

The project will recruit several postdoctoral researchers, who will develop a highly transdisciplinary skillset across engineering and physical sciences, economics, modelling, and social sciences. This will equip them to be the future leaders that we need for holistic, just, equitable transitions to Net Zero based on sound technology. It really taps into James Martin’s belief that we need people with wide skillsets and the ability to think in broader contexts to be effective in tackling the big questions confronting us.

More widely, a philosophy of engagement and dissemination is woven throughout the programme. In particular, we aim to disseminate the findings from India and Kenya to empower communities across the Global South to co-create solutions to adopt electric transport and manage critical materials. This will use the extensive contacts we already have built up, particularly through our involvement with the URKI Ayrton Challenge for Energy Storage, where Professor Howey is a member of the strategic leadership group, and the Faraday Institution’s Battery Ambassadors program, which connects us with a network of researchers across 13 countries.

What excites you most about this new work?

As a concept, second life redeployment of EV batteries has been widely discussed for over two decades, but very little practical progress has been made so far. If we can get this right, it can serve as an exemplar for how we can rethink future energy systems to truly embed sustainability and circular economy principles. There will also be much broader lessons for any industry relying on limited critical materials.

When I started my research career, the focus was on developing cheaper batteries with higher energy densities. Now the zeitgeist has moved towards optimising sustainability and circularity. It excites me to be part of a project that will play a major role in setting the discourse of battery research for the next ten years.