The REPUTER project aims at the development of an efficient, closed-loop and eco-conceived rare earth recycling and separation process from end-of-life rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries, starting from battery collection down to the formulation of rare earths as pure oxides or metals ready to be used in various industrial applications. Rare earth elements (REE) have become essential for our modern economy, being considered today as the most critical raw materials group with the highest supply risk. Despite this situation, the recovery of REE from Ni-MH batteries is almost non-existent (less than 1% of the REE were recycled in 2011), most of the rare earths present ending up diluted in the slags and their reuse value consequently reduced. This situation is often due to an inefficient collection and sorting process and of various technological difficulties related to REE recovery, extraction, separation and conversion to metals. Therefore, a large effort is needed for overcoming these difficulties and improving the recycling rates, in line with the goals of the EU’s Energy Roadmap 2050. In the same time, recycling activities need to be complemented with new efficient and robust environmentally-friendly separation technologies and with an expertise in the conversion of rare earth oxides into metals or alloys. The objectives of this proposal are to: (i) Reinforce through common objectives the expertise and complementary competences gained in France in hydrometallurgy (spent nuclear fuel reprocessing) and in pyrometallurgy (aluminum, sodium, zirconium industry); (ii) Remove the scientific and technical barriers currently affecting the development of REE recycling, particularly by innovating in terms of dedicated hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical process efficiency and compactness; (iii) Bring experimental data and evaluate the possibility to reach a sufficient purity (> 99.5%) of the recycled rare earths at a 10 to 100 gram scale in order to use these purified oxides or metals for industrial applications (catalytic materials, magnets and new batteries); (iv) Evaluate the impact of the recycling process using a life cycle analysis and a technical-economic study, allowing an extrapolation of the process to higher flows and helping the potentially interested industrial companies making an informed decision about the possible commercialization of the process. The work plan is structured into six major tasks (including project coordination). The first step covers the efficient recovery and sorting of REE-rich fractions from end-of-life Ni-MH batteries, via mechanic and thermal operations, followed by acid leaching. The second task will address the optimized extraction and separation of REE from Nickel and other transition elements present in batteries, using hydrometallurgy (liquid-liquid solvent extraction) leading to pure REE in solution. The solvent formulation will be optimized, particularly by designing and studying new selective extractant molecules allowing an efficient intra-REE separation in the presence of transition metals. The conversion of separated light REE (such as La and Ce) into oxides will be carried out in a third task, with the aim of developing ceramic oxide materials with interesting catalytic properties for further valorisation. The forth task is dedicated to the development of pyrometallurgical technologies for the conversion of RE oxides (particularly Nd and Pr) into high purity RE metals. Different types of pyrometallurgical processes mainly based on molten salt electrolysis (alkaline or alkaline-earth chlorides and fluorides) will be studied and optimized in order to propose a robust solution and reach the purity requirements for specific applications (for the NdFeB magnet industry in particular). The last task is dedicated to a life cycle analysis and technical-economic study of the processes.

The CROCODILE project will showcase innovative metallurgical systems based on advanced pyro-, hydro-, bio-, iono- and electrometallurgy technologies for the recovery of cobalt and the production of cobalt metal and upstream products from a wide variety of secondary and primary European resources. CROCODILE will demonstrate the synergetic approaches and the integration of the innovative metallurgical systems within existing recovery processes of cobalt from primary and secondary sources at different locations in Europe, to enhance their efficiency, improve their economic and environmental values, and will provide a zero-waste strategy for important waste streams rich in cobalt such as batteries. Additionally, CROCODILE will produce a first of a kind economically and environmentally viable mobile commercial metallurgical system based on advanced hydrometallurgical and electrochemical technologies able to produce cobalt metal from black mass containing cobalt from different sources of waste streams such as spent batteries and catalysts. The new established value chain in this project will bring together for the first time major players who have the potential of supplying 10,000 ton of cobalt annually in the mid-term range from European resources, corresponding to about 65% of the current overall EU industrial demand. Therefore, the project will reduce drastically the very high supply risk of cobalt for Europe, provide SMEs with novel business opportunities, and consolidate the business of large refineries with economically and environmentally friendly technologies and decouple their business from currently unstable supply of feedstocks.

3beLiEVe aims at delivering the 3b generation of LNMO cells for the electrified vehicles market of 2025 and beyond. The project addresses the full scope of the LC-BAT-5-2019 call by delivering: • 3b generation batteries with LNMO cathodes, LiFSI electrolyte, and a 10-20 wt.% Si-C anode in a cell architecture capable of 750 Wh/l, 300 Wh/kg, 1.4 kW/kg, and 2,000+ deep cycles, of which 10% at 3C+; • a portfolio of internal and external sensors (22 sensors per module) and an adaptive liquid cooling system managed by a smart BMS with advanced diagnostic and operational functions; • cradle to cradle approach, including cell/module/pack green manufacturing processes (gigafactory level), optical equipment for inline quality inspection, 1st and 2nd life performance and recyclability demonstration, achieving 90 €/kWh life cycle cost. The project will deliver 250 cells of generation 3b in total and two demonstrator battery packs of 88 cells and 12 kWh capacity each at TRL 6 / MRL 8. These aim at demonstrating the 3beLiEVe technology performance for applications in light duty (i.e. passenger cars, freight vehicles) and commercial vehicles (i.e. city buses and trucks) in fully electric/plug-in hybrid (BEV/PHEV) configurations. 3beLiEVe technology is free of critical raw materials (cobalt and natural graphite), scalable and sustainable, aiming at 12.7 GWh production by 2025 and 33.7 GWh in 2030, for a market ranging from 1.1 to 2.5 billion €/year, i.e. 7% of the global manufacturing capacity. All the technological domains and innovations addressed in 3beLiEVe are essential for strengthening the position of the European battery and automotive industry in the future market of xEVs.

The increasing need to find alternative energy sources, combined with the general urgency to decarbonise the way we produce, store and consume in order to meet the EU's climate and sustainability targets, is stimulating a massive and rapid use of critical raw materials, which are fundamental to the production of electrical and electronic equipment and batteries, pillars of the green and digital transition that the EU is called upon to achieve. The challenges are increasingly important given the rapidly changing geopolitical environment. AutoMat is responding to these cross-cutting and urgent challenges through the timely introduction of disruptive, holistic, circular and sustainable target-driven concepts and solutions, driven by the implementation of the following key aspects: i) High value-added recycling technologies, mainly focused on preparing batteries and EEE components (battery packs, modules, cells, parts and materials) for re-use, through the most advanced collaborative-adaptive and flexible disassembly, sorting and material recovery technologies and integrated solutions, in order to drastically reduce the amount of non-reusable parts and materials, and to return to the market with new products (including chemicals) able to meet the needs of the market ii) Transversal digitisation of solutions towards a multi-level and continuous digital data exchange and elaboration able to support new strategies of advanced and compliant separate collection to increase the quality and availability of target streams, support in real time the efficiency of recycling-reuse processes through the homogenisation of external inputs, provide always personalised and predictive information on the most appropriate operations to be applied, aiming at a massive reduction of risks and waste during handling, collection and recycling operations, provide digital passports to second life applications, to strengthen the efficiency of the outputs coming from the AutoMat global value chain.