DEER Regeneration Restores End-of-Life Lithium Batteries to 95% Capacity
Cornell researchers introduce Direct Electrode-to-Electrode Regeneration (DEER), a chemical method that restores end-of-life lithium-ion batteries to about 95% of their original capacity by removing the SEI layer with a DMI bath, slowing degradation and enabling electrode reuse in new packs; DEER is not a universal replacement for recycling and is limited to still-operational cells whose capacity loss is SEI-related (70–80% remaining). The process faces scale-up challenges, with lab results showing up to 800 cycles before degradation accelerates and a cost estimate of roughly $15.25 per kg for DEER-regenerated cells versus $26.31 per kg for traditional methods, with further reductions possible when recovering the DMI solvent. Could boost EV battery circularity but large-scale deployment remains uncertain.