Project Information:
Project Partner:
The expansion of lithium-ion battery (LIB) production capacity in Europe is currently proceeding at a very rapid pace, so solutions need to be found for the limited availability of key raw materials and the CO2 footprint of battery cells needs to be reduced. A targeted approach is to close battery material cycles, which requires LIB materials to be recycled at the end of their life.
To achieve this goal, a larger pilot plant for mechanical-thermal recycling is currently being built at the TU Braunschweig based on the results of the LithoRec projects. The well-founded expertise and intensive research of a circular battery production along the entire material cycle at laboratory and pilot scale in the research region of Braunschweig is unique in Germany and Europe.
Due to the constantly improving material composition of the electrodes, the challenges for mechanical dismantling and the separability of components containing valuable materials are constantly increasing. Further development of the LithoRec process is therefore essential to achieve the required recycling rates and purities. The in-depth research and development of the process requires continuous recording of process and product data. In addition, the purity of the input materials should be increased and the complexity of the recycling processes reduced by dismantling down to cell or electrode level.
In the OptiMaL project, the basic plant will be specifically extended with plant components and sensor technology in order to specifically address the following objectives:
The expansion and upgrades will contribute significantly to increasing the productivity, process stability, flexibility, quality and yield of the recycling processes for circular value creation.
Contact:
Dennis Beusen
d.beusen(at)tu-braunschweig.de