Current recycling technology is focused on recovering Li from battery scrap, while hardly much focus and technological development is going towards other Li sources. Hence the aim is to recover Li from potential secondary sources, in order to reduce unrecovered Li from its waste generation, which is estimated to be approx. 27.33% of the current global Li production. RELiEF proposes an integrated recycling facility for Li from secondary raw material sources with continuous processing to produce battery materials. Li wastes will be reduced by more than 70%, which will instead be recycled into high value battery-grade material. The results of the integrated and continuous process up to battery precursor recovery will be demonstrated at TRL 5 and battery active material closed-loop process will be demonstrated at TRL4 with a 1.5 – 2.5 kg/week output of battery active materials and a new business model will be developed for the materials acquisition and processing, taking into account environmental and social sustainability. The expected results will contribute to decreasing the dependency of the EU on imported battery chemicals and raw materials. RELiEF will greatly strengthen the EU’s competitiveness in the battery storage value chain. The RELiEF consortium consists of 12 partners, six of which are SMEs (ABEE, EXT, EURICE, IST, PEG, TC), four are non-profit RTOs (IMNR, INEGI, ZSW, NOVA) and further two are universities (LUT, ULB) and one associated industrial partner (LANX), Thus, it a very high amount of industry involvement, entirely in the form of innovative SMEs covering the technological and also the impact maximization related aspects of the project; a perfect combination of basic research methodologies, chemical process and analysis capabilities, technology development in an industrial environment and strong ties to the recycling and battery industry and policymaking entities inside the EU.

Europe’s objective to have 30 million electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030 can only be achieved by large scale, in-house production of highly effective and performant batteries. Development of solid-state battery technologies could improve the energy density and safety of lithium metal solid state batteries. PULSELiON project aims to develop the manufacturing process of Gen 4b solid-state batteries (SSBs) based on lithium-metal anode, sulfide solid electrolytes, and Nickel-rich NMC cathode. Novel pulsed laser deposition technique developed by PULSEDEON will be adapted and modified into a single-step vacuum process for safe and efficient manufacturing of anode components composed of lithium metal, protective layers, and sulfide based solid electrolytes. The cathode layer will be made based on conventional wet processing techniques. Initially, the anode and cathode layers will be developed in small scale for making coin cells and monolayer cells for optimising the materials and process. SSB cells will be developed with optimised process routes and will be upscaled to a pilot line proof-of-concept (TRL 6) by manufacturing large scale solid-state batteries (10 Ah). Digitalisation will be incorporated in the process modelling task with the inputs obtained from process upscaling and cell testing tasks, which will enable efficient process optimisation.

To date, the battery market is dominated by lithium-ion (Li-ion) chemistries, as the energy density has more than doubled and their costs have dropped by a factor of at least 10. However, conventional Li-ion batteries (LIB) are reaching their performance limits in terms of energy density and facing safety issues, is required the development and production of new battery generations, such as Solid-State Batteries (SSBs), to create a new industry value chain in Europe towards their commercialization. Consequently, high-energy-density EU-made SSBs will ensure the supply of, among others, the automotive sector. To do so, the development and deployment of new manufacturing technologies, enabling the large-scale production of SSBs, is crucial. Indeed, among the overarching themes to develop and produce sustainable batteries in the future, the BATTERY 2030+ roadmap4 considers manufacturability as a cross-cutting key area. Innovative and scalable manufacturing techniques to produce SSBs will accelerate cost reduction, energy savings, and enhanced safety. ADVAGEN will develop a new lithium metal (LiM) battery cell technology based on a safe, reliable, and high performing hybrid solid-state electrolyte (LLZO-LPS based), gaining a competitive advantage over the worldwide (mainly Asian) competition. This will sustainably strengthen the EU as a technological and manufacturing leader in batteries as specified in the ERTRAC electrification roadmap and SET-Plan Action Point-7. ADVAGEN consortium contains key EU actors in the battery sector, from industrial materials producers (SCHT, CPT, ABEE), battery manufacturer (ABEE) to R&D centers (IKE, CEA, IREC, TUB, CICe, POLITO, INEGI, UL, FEV) and the automotive industry (TME), covering the complete knowledge and value chain. By developing high-performance, affordable and safe batteries, ADVAGEN aims to re-establish European competitiveness in battery cell production.

AID4SME will facilitate SMEs in developing combined AI and data solutions for large scale resource optimisation challenges for industries that have significant impact on the objectives of the Green Deal. Minimum 20 SMEs, selected through 2 open calls, will receive FSTP to develop these solutions with the support of a Community of Practice (COP). The ambition is to create a COP that will continue after the project lifetime. AID4SME brings together 9 technology blocks and low-TRL playgrounds from 4 scientific partners, to educate and support the SMEs. Additionally, 4 large industry partners (from automotive, whitegoods, battery and energy sector) provide real-life large scale resource optimization challenges that require combined AI and data solutions, and high-TRL playgrounds to integrate and demonstrate the solutions.AID4SME offers an open platform that is flexible to bring in challenges from outside the consortium. AID4SME provides the infrastructure and learning environment that enable the SMEs to solve the challenges, demonstrate solutions and grow into impactful enterprises. The technology blocks cover a wide area of AI & data technologies for the full cycle of data collection, creation of insights, decision support and automation. These technologies have the potential to have significant impact on the Green Transition and boost EU competitiveness for industries. AID4SME will collaborate with the AI-on-Demand platform to enrich its repository with the AID4SME tools and framework, while it is open to deploy the tools/frameworks already available on the AI-on-Demand platform for new use cases. AID4SME will assess the impact of the developed technologies on Green Deal objectives and on social and human aspects. AID4SME brings along partners who are experienced in re-skilling and up-skilling of SMEs and applying standardization as enabler for exploitation. The wide geographical coverage, with partners and DIHs from all across Europe, ensures maximum impact.

The EXTENDED overall objective is to design, develop and validate the next-generation battery pack systems that will be an answer to the unmet need for mass-market take-up of electrical vehicles and applications by developing efficient, lightweight, eco-designed and multi-life battery pack systems with substantially reduced charging times, passenger car ranges beyond 500 km under normal driving conditions with an optimized energy storage capacity, a lifetime of at least 300,000 km and being monitored with an advanced Battery Management System developed for 1st and 2nd life. The developed technologies and solutions will be optimized for applications such as stationary and aeronautics. The battery system will be developed based on semi-solid-state battery technology with almost double energy density compared to conventional lithium ion batteries. This will be the first time that a large semi solid state battery cell (35Ah) will be implemented in EU research projects. A set of 6 Specific Research objectives (SROs) are defined below, which support the overall objective of the project, to develop the next generation battery pack system from its innovative elements and parts to a next generation battery pack system validated under real life conditions. The overall objective is besides specific research objectives also supported by a set of dissemination and exploitation objectives (DEOs, see section 2.2) and communication objectives (COs, see section 2.2.1). To achieve those challenging and innovative targets, the EXTENDED project is composed of 19 partners from 10 EU countries. The geographical distribution, expertise complementarity, positioning within the technology value chain, academic versus industrial profiles and recognizable completeness of this consortium.