Press releases

Without lithium-ion batteries, environmentally friendly mobility and a sustain-able energy supply would be virtually inconceivable. However, the increasing demand for batteries and the associated raw materials poses major challenges. The REWIND project aims to overcome important obstacles on the way to an efficient and ecologically sustainable circular economy. REWIND is part of the BattFutur program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The ReUse project, short for "Efficient direct recycling for low-value LFP battery for circular and sustainable waste management," is a 36-month research initia-tive. It is funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innova-tion program, operating under Grant Agreement No. 101137774, with a substan-tial EU contribution amounting to €4,927,664.93 in funding. The project com-menced in January 2024.

For the future decrease of carbon footprints in electromobility, the production of traction batteries has to become “greener”. In improving the electronic conductivity of battery cathodes carbon plays a critical role and thus is essential to achieve fast charging and discharging rates. The HiQ-CARB project, funded by EIT RawMaterials under the Horizon Europe Program started in 2021 to make the supply with high-quality conductive additives more sustainable, with low carbon footprint and resource-efficient carbon materials. The results after the first half of the project leave no doubt that a switch to more sustainable manufacturing methods is possible.

Electromobility continues to gain momentum. Accelerated by high fuel prices, more and more buyers are switching to hybrid or pure electric vehicles, as shown by the latest statistics of new registrations. As the number of traction batteries increases, the question of environmentally friendly manufacturing and recycling processes is also becoming louder. One key aspect is the function-preserving recycling of lithium-ion batteries. The "RecyLIB" project launched in 2022 - funded via ERA-MIN by the European Union and national funding organizations - aims to set an example with new processes for battery electrode production, direct recycling and integrated functional material cycles.

The SPARTACUS research project as part of the EU research initiative BATTERY 2030+ has now been running for around a year. The project has successfully mastered the first milestones and project goals. On the way to sensor-based optimization of charging times, range and service life for lithium-ion batteries, the SPARTACUS project team has worked on a number of partial aspects over the past 12 months. Now the individual components can be combined into a complete system.

Technological sovereignty and job security in Germany, the sustainable rethinking and redirection in the use of raw materials - the most efficient possible use and resource-conserving utilization concepts - are major challenges facing the industrial sectors in Europe and worldwide. In particular, the shift away from fossil-fueled mobility to sustainable electromobility based on renewable energy sources has intensified the discussion about the resource requirements for the batteries needed for this. This is precisely where the IDcycLIB joint project comes in with forward-looking concepts.

The Green Batteries Conference 2021 assembles experts from all parts of the battery value chain and achieve a common understanding of the different aspects of sustainable batteries – from raw materials and storage sites to battery concepts, design for recycling, sustainable manufacturing and use, recycling technologies and closing the loop. The conference will be held online on Tuesday afternoons in October 2021, and the response is already very promising.

Lithium-ion batteries require in addition to lithium metal a number of sophisticated functional materials for their performance. Some of them sound rather unspectacular: conductive additives. In fact, conductive additives like carbon black or carbon nanotubes are a decisive component for the performance and environmental benignity of lithium-ion batteries. The recently launched collaborative project HiQ-CARB aims to provide new carbons with a superior performance and a low carbon footprint for future green batteries in Europe. HiQ-CARB is receiving EU funding from EIT RawMaterials to scale up and validate this important battery material.

Faster charging, longer stability of performance not only for electric vehicles but also for smartphones and other battery powered products. What still sounds like science fiction today might be feasible in the future, not least thanks to innovations the recently started “Spartacus” research project wants to achieve. By utilizing advanced sensors and cell management systems, “Spartacus” aims to reduce charging times by up to 20 % without compromising the reliability and service life of batteries. The European Union is funding “Spartacus” as part of the Battery 2030+ research initiative.

Batteries will play a crucial role in the phase-out of fossil fuels, in particular in the transport sector. If the goal of reducing CO2 emissions in Germany by 55 percent by 2030 is to be achieved, future batteries must above all become more sustainable and also cheaper. That is a big challenge, because the development of new batteries takes a long time - longer than we can wait for the green transition. The EU project BIG-MAP (Battery Interface Genome - Materials Acceleration Platform), aims at accelerating the speed of battery development by changing the way of inventing, so that future sustainable and ultra-high-performance batteries can be developed 10 times faster than today.