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Battery Recycling
DAY 1: Wednesday 28 June 2023
09:00 am – 12:10 pm
Opening Keynote Presentations
09:15 am – 09:40 am
Status, opportunities and challenges for the European battery value chain in recycling
Europe leads the world on environmental reform, through the EU’s taxonomy to reduce CO2 emissions by 55% in 2030 vs. 1990 and a net zero 2050 target, with the European Green Deal’s €1.8 trillion of finance supporting an energy transition needed to reach them. Electrification of energy supply requires storage, and batteries are part of the solution. So far, more than €127 billion has been invested across the value chain with ~80GWh of capacity in 2022 expected to grow to exceed 1TWh by 2030. The new EU Battery Regulation promotes transparency, sustainability and circularity, benefitting European customers and the environment, meaning rapid market growth doesn’t come with negative impact. Such significant targets, however, creates challenges, especially in a newly emerging market with strong reliance on mined natural resource use. This presentation will address the European battery industry status and outlook, and its opportunities and challenges for battery recycling industry, with a policy context.
09:40 am – 10:25 am
Conversation: predictions for the future of Battery raw materials and the impact of Recycling
MODERATOR
PANELLISTS
10:25 am – 11:00 am
Coffee Break
11:00 am – 11:25 am
Will it go round in circles? – A systemic approach to learn from previous experience for a successful battery recycling.
Currently, much attention is rightfully put on battery recycling processes and the need to build up adequate recycling infrastructure and capacities. But is this technology focus a sufficient enabler for setting up comprehensive and effective loops for the key battery materials? We can learn a lot when looking at past experiences gained with the recycling of vehicles, automotive catalysts or electronic scrap: although mature recycling processes and often attractive economic conditions do exist for these, in praxis the realized recycling volumes have turned out to be only a fraction of the anticipated recycling potential, leading to significant losses of valuable metals. Obviously, beyond the recycling technology itself, other non-technical factors play a crucial role as well. So what are the generic requirements for a truly comprehensive recycling of valuable metal containing products? The presentation will elaborate this on concrete examples and develop systematic prerequisites to establish closed physical loops for key battery materials.
11:25 am – 11:50 am
Insights on how to establish a successful battery recycling strategy
In this presentation we will provide the insights on how to establish a successful battery recycling strategy, while taking into consideration the legal, commercial and technical boundary conditions. The presentations is based on BCG latest EV battery recycling study, which included various interviews with stakeholders and a model used to simulate the boundary conditions in different market scenarios.
11:50 am – 13:00 pm
Lunch Break
13:00 pm – 15:00 pm
Sustainable Mobility and Second Life Batteries
13:00 pm – 13:25 pm
A Global Circular Economy for (Electric) Vehicles to Secure Resilient Supply Chain
Circular Economy will be both vital to ensure sustainability of batteries, and to supply increasing amounts of critical raw materials to the electrification of transport and power systems. Short term however, its potentials are limited not only by the lack of batteries to recycle, but also challenges coming with global supply chains, technology development, and complex markets. We explore how to support the circular economy for batteries and electric vehicles can be advanced to fulfil its promises.
13:25 pm – 13:50 pm
The refurbished battery market and technology
As Europe is focusing on the wide loop of battery recycling that relies mainly on chemistry processes, a tight loop concerning the life extension of lithium-ion cells can be set up in a faster and less expensive way. The ageing of cells inside a pack is uneven resulting in just a few cells being faulty resulting when the destruction of the whole pack occurs. It’s possible to upcycle these cells by dismantling the packs, however this is time consuming as batteries are welded and glued. At Gouach, we have created the technology to design eco-designed battery packs allowing easy swap of cells. By refurbishing battery packs in various applications, Gouach guarantees that cells are used to their maximum potential before being recycled.
13:50 pm – 14:15 pm
How to make batteries circular by establishing a 2nd life process
14:15 pm – 14:55 pm
Panel Discussion: Future Challenges for Battery Raw Materials; Are second Life Batteries the Solution?
MODERATOR
PANELLISTS
This discussion will examine the upcoming challenges for battery raw materials and the potential of second life batteries in creating a resilient and sustainable supply chain for battery manufacturing. Our expert panellists will explore the advantages, feasibility, and potential scalability of this approach, as well as its potential to alleviate the stress on the battery raw material supply chain.
14:55 pm – 15:25 pm
Coffee Break
15:25 pm – 17:15 pm
Challenges and Solutions for Recycling EV Batteries
15:25 pm – 15:50 pm
Closing the loop for Lithium-Ion batteries in Europe? Opportunities and Challenges
TES Sustainable Battery Solutions is one of the very few recycling companies who was able to fully close the loop for Lithium-Ion batteries in Asia. One of our client’s new handphone batteries have now recycled battery material from their old phones included. While this is amazing, is this also possible already in Europe? If not, why is this? Additional questions to be discussed are the different battery chemistries we have and will have in Europe. How will they be recycled if the valuable metals in future EV batteries are reduced to a bare minimum? Those questions and related opportunities and challenges in battery recycling will be shared and discussed.
15:50 pm – 16:15 pm
How Veolia closes the loop of EV battery high-value materials thanks to innovative recycling processes
The expansion of electric vehicle production is a real step forward for mobility. But it is also a major challenge because to make electric mobility ever more sustainable, we need to think about the entire value chain in a circular way: from design to end of life. Veolia is working to cover the entire value chain of its partners’ batteries for electric vehicles while developing a secure and local supply of secondary raw materials. Whether it’s upstream eco-design, the second life of batteries, or their recycling, Veolia know-how enables us to provide appropriate technical, regulatory, and safe solutions. At a time when the global critical metal extraction market is experiencing a real supply crisis and creating significant geopolitical tensions, we are recovering battery components (e.g., lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, etc.) and giving them a second life. Find out more about how Veolia is ready to take up this challenge to make electric mobility ever more sustainable.
16:15 pm – 16:40 pm
Battery Lifecycle Solutions - Our contribution to sustainable e-mobility
16:40 pm – 17:05 pm
Case Study: Stena Recycling Process for Lithium Ion Batteries with Partners URT and Barradas
Stena is opening their mechanical recycling facility for Lithium-Ion Batteries in the Nordic Recycling Center located in Halmstad in March this year, after starting three manual recycling processes in the last years. This new process was designed and is being constructed in conjunction with our partners at URT and Barradas who are amongst the European pioneers in LIB recycling. The case study aims to give a short intro to Stena and mainly to give insights into preparations and infrastructure needed to set up the shredding, drying and separation processes from an operators perspective. The enabling processes Discharge and Dismantling, which are needed prior to shredding, are also a part of the study. The Stena Recycling Process ends with separated dry black mass or BAM which is supplied to our downstream partners.
Battery Recycling
DAY 2: Thursday 29 June 2023
09:00 am – 11:55 am
Digitalisation of the supply chain
09:30 am – 09:55 am
Advancing circularity for EV Batteries through traceability
Join us for a discussion on how traceability is driving the circular economy for EV batteries. Minespider, a key player in the EU-funded BATRAW and Recirculate projects, is working with industry leaders like Renault and Ford Otosan to revolutionize end-of-life battery procedures and practices, alongside establishing secure data flows using our Open Battery Passports.
09:55 am – 10:20 am
Batteries end-of-life automation
The talk will deal with the automotive batteries dismantling process, deep-diving on the possibilities that automation offers in terms of traceability and throughput; the main challenge addressed is the flexibility required by the large number of different models used in the automotive industry. The COMAU approach based on Artificial Intelligence and Low Code Programming will be displayed.
10:20 am – 10:50 am
Coffee Break
10:50 am – 11:05 am
Battery Passports: Next generation digital enablers of efficient, circular batteries
As the EU Battery Regulation is expected to pass in summer 2023, Digital Battery Passports will become mandated for all large batteries in the European Common Market. Alongside international developments ranging from the U.S. to Japan, ambitious multistakeholder activities like Catena-X or Global Batterie alliance push the concept further. This impulse will outline the status quo, main actors, challenges and opportunities of battery passports.
11:05 am – 11:50 am
Battery Passports, a tool to unlock sustainable battery life cycles: From the Battery Pass project’s content guidance to technical implementation
MODERATOR
PANELLISTS
Battery Passports are a first of many Digital Product Passports that are intended to accelerate the twin transition of digitalization and sustainability. By consolidating key data about product composition, circularity parameters, and carbon footprints for businesses, governments and consumers, this new technology is expected to lay foundations for sustainable business globally. The emerging technology is being advanced both at EU level through regulation, and at global level through multistakeholder activities.
The Battery Pass project produced the first guidance for developing Battery Passports as required by the upcoming EU Battery Regulation. In collaboration with global leaders in battery passports, like Global Battery Alliance and Catena-X, the group is Europe’s most advanced to shape the details for the emerging technology.
This panel will discuss the new Content Guidance and necessary next steps to make Battery Passports a reality.
11:50 am – 13:05 pm
Lunch Break
13:05 pm – 15:15 pm
Rethinking recycling Processes
13:05 pm – 13:30 pm
Restoring critical raw materials by rethinking recycling
Fortum Recycling & Waste is rethinking recycling and leading the way towards a material revolution. Solving problems is in our DNA and our mission is to transform waste streams back to essential raw materials. The material demand for new EV batteries is currently higher than the availability of old end-of-life batteries. If you imagine that for a fully electric car lithium-ion battery, you need approximately 50 kg of nickel, 8 kg of lithium and 7 kg of cobalt, you start to comprehend the size of the challenge of the raw materials shortage in Europe. For the EV and battery sector to be sustainable, we need to recover raw materials from the battery production process in the most sustainable way. And If we want to reach the common EU target of greener batteries – and speed up the transition to green energy systems – we also need to utilize all metallic side streams available. Fortum has comprehensive expertise in li-ion (hydrometallurgical) battery recycling technology through its own in-house R&D and IP development. The raw material crisis has pushed the company’s thinking further and perhaps surprisingly, synergies are being seen with different waste streams, like how the fly ash from waste incineration could be a valuable source for recovering metals. This session aims to elaborate the various synergies between different industrial actors and the combinations of potential side-streams that could be harnessed to the use of some other sectors. Fortum Recycling & Waste is active in plastics, batteries, metals and ash & slag recycling and is at the forefront of analysing these synergies between different waste streams. Raw materials scarcity is expected to be one of the biggest challenges of our future and we need cross-industrial collaboration to address the new challenges.
13:30 pm – 13:55 pm
The role of diluents in battery recycling processes
Solvent extraction plays an important role in the recovery of “critical materials” like Cobalt and Nickel and more recently also Lithium in the recycling process of batteries. Solvent extraction can also be used to remove impurities like Manganese or Magnesium from the Pregnant Leach Solution (PLS). Typically achieved purities are higher, which help to directly close the recycle loop from used to new battery, by producing battery grade raw materials. This is the reason for the shift from pyro- to hydrometallurgy, from precipitation to extraction. The diluent impacts not only the performance but also certain aspects of sustainability of the process. The paper will present criteria and industry examples of how to select the right diluent.
13:55 pm – 14:20 pm
Closing the loop in E-mobility
There will be a flood of EoL batteries that we will need to manage and recycle by 2030. Additionally, we have to keep the materials in the loop because Europe doesn’t have its own raw materials.
Battery recycling is a very complex process or consists of many processes, even if you look at it from the delivery of EoL batteries “only” to the clean black mass. I will present a hydro-mechanical process that provides the safety advantages of the pyrometallurgical treatment and combines it with the high purity fractions of a mechanical separation at the same time. The process has broad application potential for various battery types due to its adaptability for different shapes and construction designs, especially for large battery systems coming from automotive sector. The entire process from dismantling, separation and sorting the desired fractions (metals, plastics, black mass) is energy and material efficient as it needs no high temperatures and critical chemicals while open up the possibility to recycle nearly all battery components. Current state, challenges and opportunities of the hydro-mechanical Li-ion battery recycling process are presented.
14:20 pm – 14:45 pm
Advanced materials for e-mobility produced by recycling lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries
A green hydrometallurgical process for the treatment of lead-acid battery paste is disclosed. The technology uses chelating organic acids to capture lead in the form of a metal-organic framework (MOF). The intermediate MOF is converted into highly advanced, nanostructured, battery-grade oxides which outperform similar materials in use today. Separately, we disclose a piloted process for the recycling of electric vehicle battery packs; the process seeks to dismantle some of the most common bottlenecks seen in lithium recycling, and includes a novel solution for the extraction of lithium as well as a process for manufacturing cathode active materials.
14:45 pm – 15:10 pm
Making it easier to recycle and re-manufacture end-of-life lithium-ion batteries
The negative environmental impacts results from the linear ‘take, make, dispose’ and dominant economic models of our time, traditionally adopted by decision-making of main stakeholders around mobility are changing thank to EVs irruption but Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) are not yet green enough to reduce mobility footprint to lowest levels. Thus, recycling has to be developed to achieve higher efficiencies and recovery rates to reintroduce Critical Raw Materials from End-of-Life (EOL) LIBs. FREE4LIB aims to develop TRL 5-6 technologies to achieve six new sustainable and efficient processes, delivering innovative recycling solutions to reach highly efficient materials recovery (metal oxides, metals and polymers) improving the supply of secondary resources at EU level. FREE4LIB will also deliver 3 processes aiming at metals and polymers re-using and electrode synthesis for re-manufacturing new LIBs, and it will study options to harness non-reusable elements. It will also deliver a Battery Passport (BP) methodology improving traceability. Besides, 2 Open Platforms will be deployed: BP and Data-driven models for the process’s optimisation. In end, to validate and spread FREE4LIB: new LIBs will be assembled on battery packs based on the design for recycling, and engagement activities with citizens, policymakers and stakeholders will be carried out, respectively.
