Innovative Recycling: Eurice Joins EU Research Project RELiEF to Give New Life to Previously Unrecovered Lithium in Batteries
The demand for lithium has almost quadrupled over the last decade paired with a staggering price hike. Supply still seems to be keeping up with the increasing demand, yet experts fear future supply chain bottlenecks, especially due to the limited geographic concentration of lithium production. More than 90% of global production results from four countries with deposits forecast to be depleted by 2055. Effective reuse and recycling of the raw material is therefore paramount across all stages of the production and use cycle to mitigate any possible future risks. It ensures maximum usage of available resources cost-effectively while reducing the environmental impact of primary lithium production and decreasing dependency on imports of raw materials.
With the development of an integrated Lithium recycling facility at a pilot plant site in Belgium, the RELiEF team will establish a process to produce battery materials from secondary and low-grade lithium sources, previously not recycled. These sources may be solid materials such as waste slag from the lithium metal production or liquid such as wastewater containing lithium generated during battery recycling.
Our team at EURICE is looking forward to jointly move this project further as part of the 13-partner strong interdisciplinary consortium. We will take the lead in the overall project management of RELiEF and pro-actively drive the communication, dissemination and innovation management strategies for this novel recycling process.
“Especially at this unprecedented time of global change including the way mobility is being reinvented, revolutionising the Lithium recycling process will be crucial. RELiEF will do just that and we are delighted to contribute to yet another forward-looking research project in this field, besides NanoBat and MeBattery”, says Jörg Scherer, Eurice's Managing Director.
The project officially started on the 1st of July 2022 and will run for a duration of three years. Funded through the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme, the project will receive EUR 9 million over its lifespan. RELiEF will be coordinated by Avesta Battery & Energy Engineering, Belgium.
To find out more, please visit the project website under https://www.lithium-relief.eu/.
