After almost three years of research, the EU research project RELiEF presents its first results and solutions for lithium and battery recycling in Europe and beyond. The consortium of 12 academic and industrial partners jointly works on developing a process to produce battery materials from secondary and low-grade lithium sources as well as safe and efficient pre-processing unit operations for solid input materials.
Find out what has been accomplished so far here
The intensive exploitation and usage of fossil fuels has led to serious environmental consequences, including soil, water, and air pollution and climate changes, and it has compromised the natural resources available for future generations. In this context, identifying new energy storage technologies can be considered a sustainable solution to these problems, with potential long-term effects. In this work, were analyzed different alternatives that can be suitable for replacing non-renewable sources, where hydrogen, wave, wind, or solar energies were considered. Although they have numerous advantages in terms of usage and substantially reducing the environmental impact, this paper is focused on lithium-ion batteries, whose high performance and safety during operation have made them attractive for a wide range of applications. The study of potential replacement technologies and the technical requirements for the main materials used is the starting point in reducing the environmental footprint, without affecting the technical capabilities, followed by the transition toward economic circularity and climate neutrality.
Energy transition has been driven by climate change and the need to decarbonize the transport sector. Herein, lithium-ion batteries play a prominent role in transports electrification and renewable energy sources integration, which has been increasing lithium demand worldwide. To alleviate lithium primary resources exploitation, the use of secondary resources of lithium are desirable, considering a circular perspective. Mine tailings are generated in massive volumes, due to low ore grades, and may present contents of lithium-based minerals. Therefore, proper management is required to guarantee the safety of this resource, offering also an opportunity for secondary recovery of critical raw materials, such as lithium. The present work aimed to analyse the potential of the electrodialytic process to recover lithium from mine tailings with lepidolite contents. The addition of inorganic and organic acids was tested, to address the synergy between the electrodialytic process and acids extraction. Pre-heat of the solid suspension and of the solid sample was also considered. Bench scale experiments were conducted considering a two-compartment electrodialytic reactor at 100 mA, with a cation exchange membrane interposed. Eight different acids, at concentrations of 0.1 mol/L and 0.5 mol/L, were tested individually and in mixture, during 3, 4 and 10 days. The highest lithium recovery ratio (29.8%) was obtained for the experiment conducted with oxalic acid at 0.5 mol/L and suspension pre-heated (55 °C) for 24 h These conditions improved chemical reactivity and the dissolution of lithium minerals.
Application of electro-based technologies for selective separation of lithium from secondary resources
Ana Catarina Lemos (NOVA)
Optimization of the electrodialytic process for the recovery of lithium from secondary resources
Catarina Nobre de Araújo Branco (NOVA)
Selective solvent extraction of Lithium from alkaline industrial wastewater
Ville Hamara (LUT)
This document describes the activities conducted under the RELiEF project Work Package (WP) 3 to evaluate the effectiveness of supercritical CO2 (SCCO2) in converting lithium (Li) from aluminium-lithium (Al/Li) alloy dust into lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃), thus facilitating subsequent leaching processes in Work Package 4. The Al/Li alloy dust, provided by the project partner Extracthive, was selected as the solid waste material due to its composition and Li content. Supercritical CO2 (SCCO2) was chosen for this pre- treatment due to its unique properties that combine gas-like diffusivity with liquid-like solubility, making it an ideal medium for extracting and converting lithium oxides present in the dust. The SCCO2 process aimed to convert lithium oxide to lithium carbonate to increase the solubility of the Li species and, hence, the leaching yield in the subsequent Work Package (WP). Experimental results indicate that while the SCCO2 process successfully facilitated the formation of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) from calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) present in the dust, the anticipated conversion of lithium oxide to lithium carbonate was not observed. This finding was corroborated by X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis, which did not detect the expected lithium carbonate peaks in the treated samples. Nevertheless, the process did alter the solid matrix of the treated material, as demonstrated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), indicating a potential impact on its leaching efficiency, which will be assessed in WP4. The project activities will be implemented in line with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data.
This document describes the activities conducted under the Task 4.5 of the RELiEF project to model the leaching processes developed within Tasks 4.1-4.4. The aim is to aid in process optimization and facilitate the up-scaling of the most promising techniques through the implementation of Machine Learning (ML) models. Four different ML models were trained with the data generated during the leaching experiments, and validated by comparing their predictions with the real values obtained in the lab. Accurate predictions were obtained for the pressurized leaching and the microwave (MW) leaching, which are the main candidates for the process demonstration in WP7. The lack of data for Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) leaching and Acid/Base leaching resulted in less accurate predictions for these leaching routes.
The project activities will be implemented in line with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.
This document describes the activities conducted under the RELiEF project to determine the preliminary life cycle performance of the developed lithium (Li) recovery and recycling processes, focusing on pre-treatment and leaching activities.
The present deliverable has conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental performance of pre-treatment and leaching alternative processes to recover Li from the solid secondary input streams: mine tailings and Al/Li alloy dust. Preliminary data was collected from RELiEF partners from WP3 and WP4 to build LCA models and generate life cycle inventories (LCI). Making use of the SUNDIAL platform, that was developed to collect the data needed for the LCI, fourteen LCA models were built, allowing to generate robust and accurate LCIs that described and quantified the input and output flows from each unit process. The environmental impacts were quantified based on Belgium and European context regarding background data from the life cycle database, considering as functional unit “1 g of Li leached in a liquid solution” and the results obtained from WP3 and WP4. A final comparison between the potential pathways from each sample was conducted to select the process with the best environmental performance in the environmental categories analysed. In the analysis for each pre-treatment and leaching process, it is evident that the main hotspots of the environmental impacts were the energy consumption and waste incineration. Mitigation measures should focus on increasing the energy efficiency and reducing the generated waste while selecting other waste treatments appropriate for hazardous waste that have lower impacts. The assessment of the mine tailings leaching pathways allowed to conclude that the water leaching, with 0.03 pt for the roasted sample, the pressurized leaching, with 1.02 pt for the untreated sample and 1.37 pt for the particle liberated sample, followed by the microwave leaching, with 2.55 pt for the untreated sample, had the lowest environmental impacts. Regarding the Al/Li alloy dust, the pathway with the lowest environmental impacts in all the categories analysed was the pressurized leaching (1.49 pt), followed by acid-base leaching (2.25 pt for untreated dust and 2.36 pt for the sample treated with supercritical CO2). To validate the obtained results, a scenario analysis was conducted through normalization of the initial sample regarding Li concentration for the highest and lowest Li values. A sensitivity to leaching efficiency was identified in the Al/Li alloy dust assessment, where it was determined that the microwave leaching was the pathway with lower environmental impacts per gram of Li leached, with 51% less impacts than pressurized leaching. In the mine tailings, the initial results were validated, whereas in the case of alloy dust, the process flow impacts are the determining factor for selecting the pathway with the best environmental performance in all the environmental impact categories studied. The selection of these pathways will allow to reduce the environmental impact of the final RELiEF technologies and business modelling. Another scenario assessed the geographical variation, as most impacts derived from the selected electricity mix (Belgium). Results indicate that the processing of these pathways in European countries has significantly less impacts than in China (current main actor of the Li and battery value chain), with a 53-72% impact reduction depending on the country mix, validating that European-based processes will generate a final design with significantly lower environmental impacts.
The project activities will be implemented in line with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.
The primary goal of the RELiEF project is to reduce lithium waste by over 70% by utilizing untapped secondary lithium sources. The project seeks to enhance the lithium metal circular value chain by developing a continuous process for recovering battery materials. By recovering lithium from potential secondary sources, the project aims to reduce the lithium lost during waste generation by approximately 27%. Ultimately, this initiative strives to reduce the EU's dependency on imported battery chemicals and raw materials.
This deliverable plays a key role in supporting the project consortium in exploiting the innovations KERs (Key Exploitable Results) coming out of the project and maximizing the project impact. This deliverable is the second part of the Plan for dissemination and exploitation of results including communication activities (PDEC) that was submitted as D9.2 in M6, while the final exploitation strategy for the project will be delivered in M36, as part of the D9.7
The focus of this deliverable is two-fold:
Firstly, to define an exploitation strategy. This document will delineate the methodology for formulating the Exploitation plans regarding the Key Exploitable Results (KERs), including a timeline and ensuring synchronization with other relevant project endeavors.
For the development of the Exploitation plans, as a first step, TechConcepts has carried out a detailed analysis of the Stakeholders pertinent to the RELiEF project. This was done during the GA01, which was held in Lisbon during June 2023. This was the first step in the development of the exploitation strategy – as the aim was to create a database of all the stakeholders, which could be used by various tasks as a platform to conduct further tasks.
Furthermore, the KERs will be further elaborated during the project execution. During the General Assembly (GA) meeting in Finland (M24), TechConcepts will organize workshop to identify unforeseen KERs, and to further detail the foreseen and unforeseen KERs, including the identification of the exploitation potential of each KER (scientific, societal, and/or regulatory). Commercial exploitation and business models will be developed in T8.4. As the business models contain confidential information – D9.7 (a follow-up of this deliverable) will include a brief overview of the commercial exploitation strategy and the business models, ensuring that there is no sensitive information made public.
Subsequently, for the KERs demonstrating scientific, societal, and regulatory exploitation potential, an exploitation plan will be crafted, culminating in an exploitation canvas. These plans will be devised collaboratively with all partners, with input gathered during an interactive workshop in Finland, facilitated by TechConcepts.
Secondary focus of this deliverable is to sketch the EU technological roadmap for battery development as well as recycling to complete the loop. This will include recommendations for national and specific EU policies to stimulate or incentivize Li waste material recovery as growing input stream in the EU for Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) production.
Understanding the market and the regulatory framework is essential for developing a Horizon Europe exploitation plan because it ensures that research outcomes are effectively translated into real-world applications and marketable innovations. A thorough market understanding enables the identification of potential users, competitors, and market needs, which guides the strategic direction of product development and commercialization efforts. Simultaneously, a deep comprehension of the regulatory framework ensures compliance with EU regulations and standards, facilitating smoother transitions from research to market. This dual insight aligns project objectives with market demands and regulatory requirements, increasing the likelihood of successful adoption and scalability of innovations across Europe. Thus, integrating market insights and regulatory knowledge is vital for maximizing the impact and sustainability of Horizon Europe projects.