ReUse at the Conference on Battery Direct Recycling 2024
The Conference on Battery Direct Recycling 2024, held from October 29–30, 2024, at the Congress Centrum Wuerzburg, brought together experts from research, industry, and policy to explore the latest advancements in direct battery recycling methods. The event, organized by Fraunhofer ISC, aimed to support the global transition toward more sustainable and economically viable battery ecosystems and strengthen the direct battery recycling community.
The conference took place in the context of increasing pressure from the EU Battery Directive and the growing importance of critical raw material recycling. The directive requires low-carbon footprint batteries, robust critical raw material reuse rates, and focuses heavily on high-quality battery recycling - setting a global benchmark for battery sustainability. In this regard, direct recycling, which seeks to maximize the recovery of battery components in their original form, is becoming a focal point for the battery industry.
ReUse project, part of the Battery 2030+ Initiative, was one of the key topics of this prestigious event. We are proud that our project coordinator, Marco Schott (Fraunhofer ISC), delivered an insightful presentation titled "Revolutionizing Low-Value LFP Battery Waste Recycling – Project ReUSE (Horizon Europe)". His presentation highlighted the project's cutting-edge recycling methods aimed at improving the recovery and reuse of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery materials.
Andreas Flegler's (Fraunhofer ISC) presentation focused on direct recycling (Tailored Direct Recycling Processes: Paving the Way for a Sustainable Future). This topic was also explored by a poster titled “Development of an Automated Cell Disassembly Concept” by Shahbaz Tareq Bandesha and followed up by a poster on innovations of data repositories titled "Open Semantic Lab: A Linked Data Schema Repository for Material Science" by Lukas Gold.
Additional contributions from ReUse partners included presentations and posters by:
Nora Bartolome (EMPA), who presented on "Where is the Lithium? – An Assessment of Lithium Content in Output Fractions from a Water Bath Direct Recycling Process ". This talk analyzed the successful recovery of lithium during water-based direct recycling processes, one of the key challenges in the battery recycling landscape.
Jeroen Spooren (VITO), presented "Towards (Direct) Recycling of LFP Batteries: Overview of the ACROBAT Project Results"
Andreas Bittner (CellCircle) presented "Direct Battery Recycling via Electrohydraulic Fragmentation"
Dawit Ayana (KYBURZ) presented “Direct Battery Recycling Processes and Recyclability Score”
Posters on Direct Recycling of Graphite from the end-of-life batteries by Smriti Anand Jha and Direct Recycling of End-of-Life LiFePO4 Cathodes by Andrin Büchel (EMPA)
Our presence at the conference further emphasized the importance of collaboration within the Battery 2030+ research framework. Kristina Edström, representing Battery 2030+, gave a keynote speech on the objectives of the initiative, focusing on how its members are contributing to the decarbonization of Europe’s battery sector through cutting-edge recycling technologies and innovative solutions.
We are proud to be part of this conversation and continue to contribute to the ongoing research and development that is centered around battery sustainability under Horizon Europe.