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Part of a joint dissemination initiative, RHINOCEROS, along with other members of the Cluster Hub “Materials for Batteries“, took the stage at Battery Innovation Days 2025, contributing to the discussion about the strategic role of recycling in the EU Battery Regulation and the broader circular economy.

Presentations explained, one after the other, Europe’s alternatives to build a circular battery ecosystem. With electric mobility accelerating and battery demand soaring, recycling is no longer optional. It has become a strategic necessity for Europe’s competitiveness and climate goals. And the EU wasted no time to announce on 3 December its recent ReSourceEU Action Plan, under the headline “Accelerating our critical raw materials strategy to adapt to a new reality”. ReSourceEU places circularity at the core of EU’s approach to set the basis for competitive CRMs industry in Europe. Projects similar to RHINOCEROS welcome this initiative and are willing to contribute with expertise and knowledge sourced from R&I.

Take-aways from the BID 2025 sessions

Eleonora Cali (RINA), representing the Materials for Batteries Cluster Hub in the parallel session “End of life, start of supply: Advancing battery recycling in Europe” on 2 December, joined leading experts to address two pressing realities in the battery industry:

• Europe’s dependency on imported raw materials. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite are critical for the energy transition, yet supply chains remain dominated by non-European players. Recycling offers a way to keep these resources in Europe, reduce environmental impact, and comply with EU regulations on secondary raw material content. The European Commission’s new Battery Regulation aims to change that by mandating minimum recycled content for key materials from 2031. This is more than an environmental measure: it is an industrial policy designed to keep resources within Europe and reduce strategic dependency.
• the expected surge of end-of-life batteries. With EU speeding up its transition to electric mobility, the question of what happens to millions of batteries at the end of their lifetime is shifting from technical to strategic priority.
  Surprisingly, speakers underlined EU’s anticipated timeline to develop recycling plants, with a scarce input of end of life applications. According to Andreas Opelt (Saubermacher) and Verena Fuchs (Cylib), for electric vehicle batteries, the timeline for returns is uncertain; early fleets are lasting longer than expected, delaying the recycling ramp-up. Opelt concluded his presentation with a pragmatic message: “The storm of batteries is coming, but if you build capacity too early, plants will sit empty”, arguing timing is critical.

Speakers from both R&I and industry taking the stage in this session called for:

• accelerated permitting for recycling infrastructures. In China, you can build a recycling plant in six months. In Europe, six months is not even enough to submit a permit,” Opel warned.
• enforcement of design-for-recycling standards in new battery regulations.
• support for industrial scale-up through funding but also simplified regulation.
• call to impose all possible measures to prevent black mass from exiting Europe, already reinforced by its recent classification as hazardous waste.

Probably one of the messages we take with us and integrate it to our initiatives’ objectives is that policies like the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, Battery Regulation and now recently adopted ReSourceEU provide the framework. What is needed now is execution at speed.

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Production of raw materials for batteries from European resources

After Wednesday’s sessions on the EU political agenda, which outlined strategic measures to meet industry needs, attention shifted to the annual workshop of the Materials for batteries hub. Now in its 4^th edition, the event was co-organised by Horizon Europe projects RELiEF, FREE4LIB, RESPECT and LITHOS. The focus of the workshop, true to its eponymous theme, was tackling one of Europe’s most urgent challenges: securing sustainable raw materials for batteries.

Under the inauguration of Oliver Schenk, Member of the European Parliament, this edition unfolded under the auspices of urgency, regulatory clarity and cross-border collaboration. The MEP called for swift implementation of the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net Zero Industry Act, stressing the need for rapid permitting and the mobilisation of both public and private investment. “We cannot afford delays,” he warned. “This is about sovereignty.” His remarks were followed by strong appeals for cooperation among mining regions, manufacturing clusters, research centres and recycling hubs to build a resilient European value chain. He urged participants to contribute to upcoming legislative files, including the European Chips Act 2, the Circular Economy Act and the new EU budget, ensuring that the priorities of the battery materials community are embedded in future policies.

Nader Akil, founder of the Cluster Hub and moderator of the first technical session, emphasised on enhancing the dialogue between academia, industry and policy makers in order to ensure that these goals would be reached.

Following up with a presentation of his  most recent scientific publication – “Lindy Effect in Hydrometallurgy” [co-authored with Dr. Ir. Peter Tom Jones]  – Professor Koen Binnemans provided a frank look at the shortcomings in industrialising battery material innovations. Transferring hydrometallurgical advancements from lab to plant is slow, constrained by economics, regulation and what the authors call “the Lindy effect” – the tendency for established technologies to stand the test of time. Industry tends to favour incremental improvements to existing processes, such as reducing reagent consumption or increasing automation, rather than adopting entirely new chemistries, due to the high risks and costs associated with large-scale change. Launching a debating topic, audience questions shifted to technical and permitting challenges, concluding with the need for incremental innovation and pragmatic timelines.
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Various EU-funded R&I initiatives, members of the Cluster Hub, presented results and findings with the promise to reduce dependency on imports. RHINOCEROS project presented its intermediary results within the technical session “Recycling and circularity”, alongside sister projects RELiEF, RESPECT and FREE4LIB.

• Alvaro Manjon (TECNALIA) detailed the RHINOCEROS project’s progress in automating battery disassembly, optimising recycling routes and upscaling processes for high recovery rates of battery materials, with a focus on sustainability and safety. The project is transitioning from R&D to construction and commissioning of pilot plants, with detailed engineering completed. Upscaling activities focus on refining, pre-treatment, and qualification of recovered materials for use in new batteries, aiming for TRL 6 and production of tens of kilograms of electrode materials per day. RHINOCEROS integrates circularity and zero-waste strategies, with ongoing validation of recovered materials in prototype batteries.
  Download RHINOCEROS presentation
• Thomas Opsomer (ABEE) presented the final results of RELiEF, a project that achieved a reduction in hazardous elements, developed a microwave leaching process with over 95% yield, and produced high-purity lithium carbonate (98.28%); while not yet battery grade materials, recovered lithium carbonate showed promising results in relithiation tests. The lithium carbonate produced was successfully tested in coin and pouch cell formats, demonstrating high reproducibility and performance close to commercial LFP materials. Opsomer emphasised the growing importance of LFP batteries in Europe and the lack of recycling capacity, noting that extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations now require battery integrators to address recycling, registration, and reporting. This creates both administrative burdens and incentives for recyclers, with recycling fees sometimes reaching 30% of battery unit costs.
  Moreover, RELiEF’s “balance sheet” listed its unsolved challenges which include insufficient black mass refining capacity and the upscaling of innovative technologies. On the other hand, opportunities include standardising black mass quality, implementing direct recycling methods and the development of regional ecosystems that connect recyclers, OEMs and policymakers to promote sustainable business models.
  Download RELiEF presentation
• FREE4LIB, presented by Juan Castro Bustamante (CARTIF), combines robotic dismantling, material recovery with a digital battery passport for traceability. The project achieved pilot-scale robotic dismantling, developed advanced state-of-health estimation tools for second-life batteries and implemented multiple pre-treatment and recycling technologies, including pyrolysis, ultrasonic delamination and hydrothermal routes for cathode material recovery. Recovered metals and polymers were reused in new battery packs, including e-bike prototypes, with successful demonstration of material quality and performance. The project also established a pilot line for metal powder atomization and 3D printing of recovered plastics.
  Project partners developed a digital passport featuring role-based access, blockchain integration, and QR labelling to enhance traceability and regulatory compliance. The platform will be made available for public access by the end of the project.
  Download FREE4LIB presentation
• RESPECT, represented by Andrea Locati (Chalmers University), presented the project’s developed flowsheet for solvent extraction and recovery of manganese, cobalt and nickel from black mass, achieving high purity and minimal cross-contamination. The recovered salts were used by CEA to produce cathode active materials, with up to 20% recycled content in electrodes, showing how the targets proposed by the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Battery Regulation are achievable. The approach allows for flexibility in product output, enabling adaptation to different NMC chemistries or other applications. Challenges include the complexity of operations, need for recirculation to minimise losses and adjusting process parameters to variable feed compositions.
  The conclusions of the RESPECT presentation emphasised the need to propose clear definitions of battery-grade materials and the importance of aligning process outputs with regulatory requirements.
  Download RESPECT presentation

Debating industrial integration, collaboration and European competitiveness

The second panel discussion, following technical session #2, moderated by Olga Henkele (Kellen) and inviting Joana Gouveia (INEGI), Sam Hoefman (EURICE) and Dr. Florian Anderhuber (Euromines) as guests, reflected on how Europe can progress from promising battery recycling innovations toward a more operational and industrial circular economy. Speakers agreed that while European research projects are generating strong technical evidence, several barriers still remain before a fully closed loop can be achieved. It addressed policy and market dynamics:

• Barriers to circularity: panelists emphasised the need for economically viable recycling in Europe and reducing regulatory burdens on recyclers. Other recommendations placed the time gap between research and industrial implementation, as well as cross-collaboration communication channels between academia, industry and policy makers as drivers of European industrial competitiveness.
• Florian Anderhuber highlighted lengthy permitting processes for new technologies and the lack of demand-side measures such as recycled content requirements. He stressed the need for financial support and market incentives to stimulate recycling and primary sourcing within Europe.
• Panellists discussed the importance of feeding clear evidence from EU-funded projects into policy making, setting clear project objectives, and considering the life cycle of projects from inception to exploitation. Joanna Gouveia, while emphasising on the LCA approaches in project, provided a direct example from the RELiEF project, where policy definitions limited the classification of secondary lithium, suggesting the need for broader definitions.

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The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), proposed by the European Commission in March 2023, was adopted by the Council one year later, on 18 March 2024, marking the last step in the decision-making procedure.

Looking back in time, less than three years ago, the raw materials was a topic exclusively tackled by ‘connaisseurs’. Today, it has become a strategic file, and the speed of its adoption shows need for action to secure a sustainable supply of critical raw materials (CRMs).

Standing at the core of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, together with the Net Zero Industry Act and the Reform of the electricity market design, the CRMA is a flagship initiative with a threefold objective: to increase and diversify the EU’s CRMs supply, to strengthen circularity, including recycling, and to support research and innovation (R&I) on resource efficiency and the development of substitutes. The bloc further consolidated this timely adoption with a set of complementary regulations and diplomatic initiatives, outlining a clear position ready to reduce reliance on third countries through export restrictions and screening for foreign direct investment across various sectors [e.g. forging strategic agreements with Chile, Greenland, Ukraine, Canada, Rwanda, and more recently Norway].

Read the official press release

Echoing the official communication, Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis declared for Euractiv: “Trade flows of critical raw materials are highly concentrated,” adding, “While we will continue to rely on imports, we need to massively diversify.”

The official document sets a threshold of 65% of the EU’s annual consumption of any CRM deriving from any single country. The CRMA establishes also a list of 34 critical and no less than 17 strategic raw materials considered crucial for the twin green and digital transition, as well as for defence and space industries.

In addition to the updated list of CRMs, the act introduces three targets for annual consumption of raw materials:

• 10% for local extraction
• 40% EU domestic processing threshold
• 25% of supply emanating from recycled material

These changes modifying the recycling target reflect the increasing importance of paving a circular economy model that ensures a sustainable supply of raw materials.

© visual: European Commission