The European BATMASS project aims to implement the EU's first Circular Battery Valley.

 

BATMASS (EU circular BATtery valley for second life, recycling, and re-manufacturing of materials and black MASS) will mobilize a fully comprehensive interregional ecosystem around 4 demonstrators (or "demonstration beacons") aimed at scaling up, commercializing and deploying green technologies innovative. Furthermore, technology transfer between less developed, transition and developed regions is intended to structure this emerging value chain and anchor it in regional innovation ecosystems.

 

The project will develop four pilot plants divided into key blocks of reused and recycled battery materials:

 

1. Collection and disassembly. Lack of digital integration and automation (package and module level disassembly, component sorting) leads to inefficiencies and suboptimal security. It is linked to poor traceability due to lack of data collection, storage and transfer. It is also related to inefficiencies and lack of flexibility due to non-digital decision mechanisms for circular chain processes. Safety issues also apply to collection, storage and processing steps due to thermal runaway and lack of efficient tracking.

 

2. Second life. Extending the life cycle of the product and underlying material is also a key factor, but bridges need to be built to ensure scalability of second uses in line with regulatory requirements.

 

3. Black mass. The challenges relate to the need for safe decommissioning on an industrial scale, a reduction in the environmental footprint and inefficiencies (performance) of the processes in question, and their economic viability when brought to scale. It is necessary to move from direct recycling and pyrometallurgy to innovative hydrometallurgical processes.

 

4. Production. There is currently no potential supplier of recycled CAM cathode materials on the market. BATMASS will be the first advance in that sense. However, new processes and new materials imply the need to qualify recycled materials for use in the development of new cells. Therefore, further industrial optimization and validation is needed at the end of the chain to green batteries and reach citizens and end consumers.

 

BATMASS has a total budget of 13,950,034 euros, receiving funding from the Interregional Innovation Investment (I3) program of the European Union (EU) and integrates 15 European entities from Slovenia, Spain, France and Italy.