21/03/2025
As a project funded under the topic HORIZON-CL5-2024-D2-01-01 – Advanced sustainable and safe pre-processing technologies for EoL battery recycling, co-programmed by the European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU), RESTORE is set to tackle the most pressing issues faced by recycling companies. It aims to enhance the efficiency, safety, speed, environmental footprint, and cost of pre-processing operations, while targeting the recovery of all battery materials at high purity levels.
With the support of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA) through Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) assessment, the most promising technological routes for recycling battery materials will finally be validated on coin cells.
Currently, battery recycling processes in Europe vary significantly, with each company employing its own in-house developed methodology. RESTORE addresses this diversity by focusing on four key complementary recycling processes. Two technical routes– notably, dry mechanical and thermal treatment, already represent the majority of current industrial processes, while the other two – electrohydraulic fragmentation, and unwinding & delamination, introduce cutting-edge advancements in the field. This dual approach enables, on one hand, the optimisation of current processes without requesting companies to readjust their existing industrial installations. On the other hand, the project’s concept aims to help benchmark these technological routes to elucidate the best processing routes, enabling stakeholders to adopt innovations in new emerging recycling lines.
The project’s concept will not only shorten the recycling process, but it will equally unlock the recovery of highly valuable materials currently lost in conventional recycling processes, such as the electrolyte, organic binder, graphite and cathode active material (CAM).
The project’s concept is based on three building blocks, which will allow the reinjection of the recovered materials directly into the battery production chain:
- Improvement of upstream processes for the sorting of batteries and the liberation of non-battery materials from EV battery packs.
- Optimisation of pre-processing of battery materials to effectively separate active and non-active materials.
- Improvement of downstream process to separate efficiently all battery materials and refine them to battery-grade standards.
With 20 partners across Europe, from 7 countries, including established research organisations and renowned industries, RESTORE aims to ensure the domestic battery recycling industry can meet the targets outlined by the Battery Directive and the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA).
“Together with major battery recycling players from industry and academia, we’re creating flexible, eco-friendly processes to turn worn-out EV and domestic Lithium-ion batteries into high-quality materials, moreover, revolutionising battery recycling towards resilient, competitive and fit green-digital European economy”, the coordinators of the RESTORE project outlined.
Photo gallery Kick-off meeting in Barcelona, 15 – 16 January 2025
