Improvement of Adaptability, Flexibility and Efficiency of Existing Recycling Processes (BATT4EU Partnership)

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations ‘Green transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the “Facilitating a clean and sustainable transition of the energy and transport sectors towards climate neutrality through cross-cutting solutions”.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

Batteries

1. Increased competitiveness and strategic autonomy of a complete EU value chain while maximizing sustainability.
2. Reducing dependency on raw materials and upscaling processing capacity, also for recycled materials.
3. Creating an integrated European battery sector for next generation batteries, from design to manufacturing and all the way to end of life, reducing environmental impact.
4. Improving energy storage technologies to enhance the resilience of EU’s energy system, facilitating integration of renewable energy sources.

Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in both Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) and Innovation Actions (IAs) falling under this destination. For additional information please see “Restrictions on the participation of legal entities established in China” found in General Annex B of the General Annexes.

Expected Outcome:

Proposals are expected to contribute to all following points:

• Improving cost and recovery efficiency of existing scaled recycling technologies
• Demonstrated technological solutions capable of efficiently recycling diverse feedstocks, including production scrap, and mixed lithium-ion battery chemistries
• Improved European competitiveness by reducing EU dependence on imported raw materials through improved recycling processes
• Demonstrable compliance with the targets and requirements set by the EU Batteries Regulation, including recycling efficiency and material recovery rates.

Scope:

Proposals under this topic are expected to specifically address innovation actions that enhance the adaptability, flexibility, and operational efficiency of existing battery recycling processes.

Projects are expected to explicitly target improvements for processing mixed input streams, particularly production scrap and various lithium-ion battery chemistries

Proposals are expected to clearly demonstrate technical innovations in black mass processing, resulting in the efficient recovery of high-purity battery-grade materials suitable for reintroduction into the European battery manufacturing value chain.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following points:

• Development and demonstration of recycling technologies capable of handling variable composition feedstocks, potentially within the same batch.
• Optimization of hydrometallurgical and/or pyrometallurgical processes for enhanced recovery rates of critical raw metals, aiming to at least achieve recovery efficiencies requirements set by the EU Batteries Regulation
• Detailed techno-economic assessments (TEA) and comprehensive life-cycle assessments (LCA), demonstrating significant improvements in energy efficiency, CO2 and ecological footprint reduction, and economic viability.

Where required, proposals should include robust and digitalised sorting technologies and other advanced pre-treatment technologies.

The Commission initiative for Safe and Sustainable by Design^[1] (SSbD) sets a framework for assessing the safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials which should be considered as a reference for project proposals.

Whenever the expected exploitation of project results entails developing, creating, manufacturing and marketing a product or process, or in creating and providing a service, the plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results must include a strategy for such exploitation. The exploitation plans are expected to include preliminary plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment (feasibility study, business plan) indicating the possible funding sources to be potentially used (in particular the Innovation Fund).

Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC)^[2] whose contribution could consist of providing added value regarding various aspects of battery circularity and sustainability. For further information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the projects, please, search for additional publicly available information on the JRC’s website^[3] (EU Science Hub) on the NCP portal, or request specific information from the JRC ([email protected])

JRC will assure that all the other applicants receive the same information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the project (e.g., via the topic-specific FAQs under the Funding and Tenders Portal).

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership on Batteries (Batt4EU) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

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[1] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/chemicals-and-advanced-materials_en

[2] https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/laboratories-z/battery-energy-storage-testing_en

[3] JRC NCP | Horizon Europe NCP Portal