SAE J3071_201604

This SAE Battery Identification and Cross Contamination Prevention document is intended to provide information that may be applicable to all types of Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) devices. It is important to develop a system that can facilitate sorting by chemistry. The recycler is interested in the chemistry of the RESS. This is true for the recyclers of Lead Acid, Lithium Ion, Nickel Cadmium etc. Thus recyclers of RESS will receive RESS from automotive, commercial, and industrial applications. These RESS have the potential to be contaminated with a RESS of an incompatible chemistry. It is recognized that mitigation methods to reduce or eliminate the introduction of incompatible chemistries into a given recycling stream would also benefit safety and the environment. Automotive manufacturers and other industries are increasingly reliant on energy storage technologies other than lead acid batteries. The introduction of these other energy storage technologies into the existing used lead acid battery (ULAB) waste and recycling stream presents challenges to recyclers that will require development of universal mechanisms for sorting the different technologies to prevent safety and environmental hazards, cross contamination, regulatory noncompliance, and negative economic impact to manufacturers and recyclers. To complicate the situation, some of these batteries may be packaged in similar or identical form factors and may even contain multiple technologies/chemistries within a single package. It is also recognised that batteries entering the waste stream may be partly dismantled or whole, presenting the recycler with a wide variety of forms of battery casings, parts, and combinations of chemistries. Methods developed for addressing these issues will also need to consider legacy energy storage systems that may end up in the waste and recycling stream.