Fraunhofer Research Institution for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKSNew approaches for sustainable battery raw materials
To advance electromobility and the energy transition, we require large quantities of critical raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt. The SeRoBatt research project is seeking innovative ways to recover these valuable materials from new sources.
Why is this project important?
Currently, material cycles are not closed. A considerable part of end-of-life products either end up in landfills or are exported abroad as scrap. This means that valuable raw materials are lost to the European market. At the same time, the new EU Battery Regulation is increasing pressure on manufacturers to use a certain proportion of recycled material in new batteries in the future. However, there are not enough end-of-life batteries available for the recycling market, and European recycling capacities are still in the process of being established.
Our approach: recycling beyond the battery
SeRoBatt focuses on products that are not batteries themselves but still contain important battery raw materials. In a circular research approach, material and material flow analyses are used to examine various EoL products containing lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt for their suitability for battery production.
Particular focus is placed on glass ceramics, which represent the second largest group of lithium-containing products after lithium-ion batteries and for which there is currently no regulated material cycle.
An ecological and economic assessment is being used to examine the extent to which the recovery of these raw materials makes sense from these perspectives. All steps along the value chain are also being considered, from collection and dismantling to pre-treatment and recovery to resynthesis. The aim is to analyse the ecological and economic viability of a circular business model. The results are summarised in a ‘secondary raw materials map’, which also provides information on transferability to other material flows, optimisation potential and regulatory gaps.
