Conference Agenda 2025

Bruna Castanheira, Researcher, CeNTI, Néstor Antuñano, Senior Engineer, CIC energiGUNE, and Hugo Knobel, Scientist, Eurofins EAG discuss best practice in the recovery of valuable metals from black mass. Watch the three give insightful presentations and then discuss their research and findings a thought provoking joining of expert minds. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are currently one of the most important electrochemical energy storage devices, powering electronic mobile devices and electric vehicles alike. However, there is a remarkable difference between their rate of production and rate of recycling. At the end of their lifecycle, only a limited number of LIBs undergo any recycling treatment, with the majority going to landfills or being hoarded in households. Meanwhile, the metal resources available from spent LIBs far exceed those found in natural mineral reserves, making these batteries a valuable source, or city mine, for metals. All these features make the recycling of LIBs an advantage necessity. A crucial component recovered during the LIBs recycling process is the “black mass” – a complex mixture containing metals and compounds used in the cathodes and anodes of LIBs. Eurofins EAG Materials Science Netherlands B.V. is a high-end service provider covering black mass, representative sampling, materials characterization, chemical and physical examination and problem solving. Hugo’s presentation will discuss detection & quantification of valuable critical metals, total fluorine determination for PFAS, compositional analysis to provide insight into the origin of battery components, allowing the efficiency of separation processes to be evaluated. The rapid growth of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has created an urgent need for sustainable recycling solutions to address resource depletion and environmental concerns. This study investigates the integration of cathode active material (CAM) synthesis directly into the hydrometallurgical recycling process for black mass, a concentrated mixture of active components recovered from end-of-life LIBs. By coupling metal recovery and CAM synthesis in a unified process, this approach aims to streamline recycling, reduce chemical waste, and minimize the carbon footprint of battery material production. The process begins with the hydrometallurgical extraction of critical metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese from black mass using optimized leaching and separation methods. The purified metal solutions are then utilized in situ for the synthesis of CAM precursors, followed by co-precipitation and thermal treatment to produce high-quality CAMs tailored for reuse in new LIBs. This integrated approach eliminates the need for separate refining and precursor production steps, significantly improving process efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, the study investigates the trade-offs between purification stringency and process efficiency, revealing that moderate purification levels can achieve high CAM quality while reducing energy and chemical consumption. Advanced characterization techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), provide insights into the relationship between the structure, morphology and purity of precursors and CAM performance. This research underscores the importance of integrating CAM synthesis with a focus on precursor optimization to enhance the viability of hydrometallurgical recycling. By addressing key challenges in morphology and purification, this approach offers a sustainable, closed-loop solution for LIB materials recovery, paving the way for environmentally and economically viable battery recycling.

In a world driven by increasing mobile energy demand, the proper management of end-of-life (EoL) batteries has become an urgent priority. This presentation introduces the long-lasting relation between H.C. Starck Tungsten (HCS) and battery materials, as well as its current efforts to implement a sustainable recycling of black masses – a product of lithium-ion battery recycling containing most of the critical raw materials (Li, Ni, Co, graphite). The presented initiative focusses on developing an innovative and resource-efficient hydrometallurgical process to transform black mass into different battery grade chemicals and the subsequent upscaling to pilot and production scale. It will be shown how innovative approaches towards lithium separation and solvent extraction can help to overcome hurdles inherent to state-of-the-art technologies and process routes.

Future Availability of Secondary Raw Materials (FutuRaM), a Horizon Europe project that researches the future availability and recoverability of secondary raw materials, will design a materials knowledge base with a focus on critical raw materials in six waste streams: electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, vehicles, construction and demolition waste, slags and ashes, and mining waste. The focus of the battery waste stream are five product categories, in line with the new Battery Regulation (EU 2023/1542), namely portable batteries, industrial batteries, electric vehicle batteries, starting, lighting and ignition batteries as well as batteries from light means of transport. The aim is to develop a stock and flow model of the total amounts and critical raw materials including those put-on market, stock, waste generated, collected as well as recycled batteries on the European market for each country. To gather information at the element level of the battery flows, a consolidated composition dataset of all battery types and cathode chemistries is assessed. Future battery flows up to 2050 are quantified within three scenarios. These scenarios include a business-as-usual scenario where the management of end-of-life batteries remains largely unchanged, a recovery scenario where end-of-life batteries become a crucial source of secondary raw materials as well as a circularity scenario where battery waste treatment undergoes a massive transformation with focus on circular business models. A recovery model is developed to investigate secondary raw materials produced by spent battery recycling for different cathode chemistries.