Joana Gouveia is an Environmental Engineer and currently enrolled as a PhD student at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). She has worked initially as a researcher for the University of Savoie Mont Blanc in France, and then as an environmental consultant for the industry in Coimbra, Portugal. In 2018, she delved into research activities at FEUP for life cycle assessment of vanadium flow batteries. Joana then joined INEGI as a Sustainability Assessment researcher for national and European projects, with publications on life cycle sustainability of products and systems.
1. In a nutshell, could you briefly describe what RELiEF is all about?
RELiEF is a Horizon Europe project dedicated to the development of circular value chains for lithium. The general idea is to recover lithium from secondary streams and bring it to a level of purification where it can be integrated into the Li-ion battery production market. Not only will these new processes alleviate some pressure on lithium demand from primary sources, but will also help to develop new circular streams in the battery value chain, potentially reducing costs as well as environmental and social impacts.
2. What is the impact of RELiEF? Who will benefit the most?
The groundwork conducted in the RELiEF project will support Europe in the development of a more resilient market for energy storage, as well as reduce the dependency on outside sources for these materials that are crucial for the technological advancement of energy storage solutions. Several industries will also benefit from the development of secondary sources of lithium, such as the metallurgical and the recycling industries, that can add value to their secondary streams and create new business opportunities. These opportunities created by RELiEF’s results can generate new business networks that are more circular, while at the same time potentially reduce the production costs of Li-ion batteries, as well as the environmental impacts in the battery value chain.
3. Could you briefly describe your institutional and personal role within the RELiEF project?
RELiEF has a great consortium of experts that complement each other perfectly to work together for the success of the project. The INEGI institute is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) with around 300 employees, well-equipped research laboratories and extensive engineering tools to support R&D activity, as well as prototyping. Our team in RELiEF is part of the sustainability research area for products & systems development, that has been working with life cycle approaches for sustainability and product circularity for years. We are leaders of work package 8 (WP8) “Sustainability Assessment and Business Modelling”, working alongside the RELiEF partners LUT, TC and ABEE. More specifically, we are responsible for the environmental life cycle assessment as well as the cost assessment of the developed processes and case studies. We are also working with our IT colleagues here in INEGI, to develop a digital data gathering platform personalized for the project’s needs. I am the team leader, and with the support of my amazing colleagues and the other RELiEF partners, I believe that the project will provide promising results. This project is also very important for me personally, since it will support my PhD thesis in sustainability assessment of new valorisation streams for the next generation of batteries.
4. Which results have already been achieved on your end and what will be the next milestones?
In WP8, our team has been focusing on developing the digital data platform. Right now, we have launched the first version with the completion of the front-end development. In this first stage, some partners will have access to the platform in order to conduct tests and do bug detection. By the start of this summer, we will have the platform ready and adapted to the project’s needs in order to gather the information for the characterisation of the processes in terms of costs, materials and energy consumption, waste generation and efficiency. The platform, named SUNDIAL, will not only support the environmental and cost life cycle studies of WP8, but also the business modelling linked to the social assessment study that is being led by our colleagues at LUT.
5. For you personally, what has been the most exciting/most challenging part of the project so far?
The most challenging part of the project currently has been developing this new platform! It is very exciting to create new tools for well-established and matured approaches that have not suffered much change. The final version will be ready by the beginning of summer, where the tool will automatically generate life cycle models, which in turn will support us in expediting the results. The main objective is to support the partners from other work packages in design development with environmental and economic parameters. Further down the line, we are looking at integrating machine learning algorithms to elevate and enhance this tool. Robust inventories lead to reliable results, and this is very important not only for the project, but also for our team’s strategic goals for R&D.
6. Which are the most significant challenges and opportunities related to the recycling of raw materials in your opinion?
In my opinion, it is very important to validate the economic viability of the recycling processes in order to ensure a sustainable and consistent business model from which other stakeholders in the battery value chain can rely on to provide these potentially new sources of critical materials, as is the case with lithium. This entails not only low operational costs, but also the availability of the secondary streams. This important work will be analysed by INEGI in the cost assessment, through the perspective of the relevant stakeholders i.e., the recycling industry. These results will also support the task of business modelling, led by our colleagues at LUT and with the support of ABEE and TC. Nonetheless, there is a significant opportunity regarding lithium, as it is one of the most important materials for the energy transition regarding electric mobility. With current market demands on the rise, it is of upmost importance to find ways to keep lithium in the battery loop as much as possible, to avoid putting more pressure on the market and accelerating the depletion of the natural resources.
7. How will RELiEF concretely contribute to the reduction of lithium waste in the future?
RELiEF project aims to minimise the generation of lithium waste by recovering it from secondary streams. Currently, the project is analysing processes that are still in low levels of development to conduct the recovery process. But if validated, the project can open doors for new sources of lithium. Moreover, these new processes can help to increase purified lithium availability in the market without increasing the demand for primary lithium. This will support reducing impacts on the environment and local communities. In addition, in higher levels of development it is expected that these alternative sources can reduce the cost of lithium in general and consequently of battery production costs.
