Project duration: 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2021

ReLieVe project will up-scale an innovative closed-loop process to recycle Li-ion batteries from electric vehicles to supply Europe with critical raw materials required for batteries manufacturing. It will involve industrial leaders and academic experts all along the value chain, from the batteries collection to the manufacturing of high added value battery-grade products working in a close relationship.

Objective

ReLieVe project intends to develop an innovative closed-loop process to recycle Li-ion batteries (LIB) from electric vehicles (EV) to supply Europe with critical raw materials required for new LIB manufacturing. It will involve leaders all along the value chain, from LIB collection and dismantling (SUEZ), going to the recycling unit (Eramet) towards the manufacturing of cathode materials (BASF). This consortium has the strong support of experts from academic research with Chimie ParisTech and NTNU for the closed-loop process developing and modelling. DAIMLER is part of the project as a member of the Advisory Board to provide guidance and understanding of the car manufacturer point of view. Therefore, partners of this project are strong players from each type of business working in a close relationship to develop not only a recycling process at industrial scale but a new fair value sharing over the value chain. The process is co-developed by Eramet, BASF and Chimie ParisTech with a strong focus on sustainability to minimize the environmental impact in terms of carbon footprint and to maximize the number of LIB compounds to be valorized.

The objective is to:

  • test this process at pilot scale and to propose the design of an industrial unit
  • integrate the recycling process into the value chain with a major player in waste management (SUEZ) and a leader in battery material manufacturing (BASF)

The solution (technology)

ReLieVe will include the following features:

  • deep assessment for the best way to collect and dismantle LIB, sort and discharge cells with an overall evaluation of the added value of automation tools (SUEZ)
  • upscaling of the close-loop process that will include a digital component (based on modeling work of NTNU) to design a flexible recycling unit that will adapt its processing conditions to the nature of the LIB chemistry in agreement with the expected chemical grades for the final products
  • qualification of the LIB precursors for those who already exist such as Ni sulfate, but also for new products that could be suitable for cathode manufacturing (BASF)

Partnership

  • ERAMET IDeas, France (Lead partner)
  • BASF SE, Sweden
  • Chimie ParisTech, France
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
  • SUEZ Groupe SAS, France