CISTEMEEC is well on track to develop the circular economy of electric mobility products

ULiège provides an update on its participation in the CISTEMEEC project for the development of industrial value chains, energy transition, electric mobility and the circular economy.

The GeMMe research group (UEE/Faculty of Applied Sciences) of the University of Liège (ULiège) is pleased to provide an update on its participation in the CISTEMEEC project for the development of “industrial value chains, the energy transition, electric mobility and the circular economy”, involving a consortium of eleven Walloon partners covering the circularity of the electric mobility value chain.

The total budget of the CISTEMEEC project is 28.5 million Euros, the Walloon Region providing funding of 16.5 million Euros. The project is developed under the coordination of Comet Traitements S.A. (Comet), a subsidiary company of Groupe Comet, a Belgian innovative company processing and recycling shredder residues (SR) which are by-products of the shredding of metallic wastes (End-of-Life Vehicles or “ELV”, Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment or “WEEE” and collected scrap).

The CISTEMEEC project aims to expand, in Wallonia, three industrial sectors supported by the growth of the electric mobility and energy transition sectors:

1. The recycling of Li-ion batteries
2. Copper
3. Rare-Earth Elements (“REE”) in permanent magnets

The extension of these value chains is based on a series of innovations and technological breakthroughs developed by the consortium partners during previous regional and European research projects.

As perfectly summarized by Fanny Lambert, head of the hydrometallurgy research unit at the GeMMe laboratory:

It is therefore fundamental to provide an overview of the “resource” of electric mobility products.

In 2023, approximately 1.1% of the 252 million cars in the European Union (EU) were equipped with an electric motor for a total of 2,675,000 units. For Belgium, 2.3% of the 6 million cars were electrically powered, for a total of 138,750 units. In Wallonia, an increase of 61% in electric cars was recorded between 2022 and 2023 for a fleet reaching 17,299 units last year (Statbel for Belgium and IWEPS for Wallonia).

The penetration rate of hybrid vehicles is significantly more important with a total three to four times higher, i.e. 530,000 and 105,757 units respectively in Belgium and Wallonia.

From these statistics, we understand that a limited number of electric or hybrid cars (representing “heavy” electric mobility) are likely to end up in recycling centers in the short term. The situation is a little different in the case of “light” electric mobility, whose emblematic equipment, electric bicycles and scooters, currently have a shorter lifespan.

Li-ion battery recycling sector

Given the overview of the “resource” of electric mobility products, Comet is focusing on electric scooters and bicycles as far as light electric mobility is concerned. For small WEEE (remote controls, electric toothbrushes, toys, connected watches, etc.), containing a significant proportion of cells and batteries of all chemistries (notably Li-ion), Comet is developing a demonstrator for the treatment of this particular waste stream. GeMMe and Cilyx are working on the development of a robotic extraction and sorting tool for these cells and batteries.

In the light mobility equipment stream, Comet undertakes the dismantling of Li-ion batteries to identify and recover batteries whose lifespan can be extended. A cell-by-cell diagnosis for the reuse potential of each item is executed in order to only send for recycling the elements which have effectively reached their end of life. The cells inserted into Li-ion batteries contain Li, Ni and Co, coveted metallic elements that provide value during recycling operations. Concerning “heavy” mobility products, very few vehicles arrive in recycling centers at present. However, production scraps from battery manufacturing lines are starting to become available for recycling.

The end-of-life cells are delivered to companies specialized in metal recycling such as Hydrometal. The black mass represents the “heart of the battery” and comes in the form of a black powder. It is an active material that contains all the critical metals that are contained in the battery. Thanks to hydrometallurgy processes, Hydrometal can isolate these different metals. The company first dissolves the metals out of the black mass to then recover Ni, Co and Li and leverage their intrinsic value. These first small-scale steps improve economic understanding and help future evaluation of investment cases.

At the University of Liège, the GeMMe and GREEnMat laboratories are involved in the entire recovery chain, from the battery to the anode and cathode materials. Indeed, they participate in the several main stages of battery valorization which are: 1) diagnosis of the state of batteries and their cells (GREEnMat), 2) from the cell to the blackmass (GeMMe) and 3) from the blackmass to the battery (GeMMe and GREEnMat). The first stage calls on expertise by GREEnMat on the analysis of battery state-of-health, the second stage involves the expertise of the GeMMe in fragmentation and mineral processing while GeMMe leverages its know-how in hydrometallurgy and GREEnMat its expertise in materials synthesis for battery manufacturing & testing during the third stage.

For their part, PEPs laboratory works on circular recycling, in particular by carrying out life cycle analysis of the products and processes developed in CISTEMEEC.

Copper sector

Electric mobility products generally contain more copper than their fossil fuel-powered counterparts. This increased use of copper is mainly due to different propulsion systems and electrical components including electric motors, battery systems, charging infrastructure, power electronics and cabling.

CISTEMEEC's approach for copper aims to extend the copper value chain by evaluating the possibility of delivering precursors for the Li-ion battery manufacturing sector as well as for the production of copper powders for high value-added markets. This is achieved by upscaling two processes already developed at TRL 4 to 5 :

• An unconventional pyrometallurgy process developed jointly by Comet and GeMMe aiming at better valorization of polymetallic concentrates resulting from the recycling of end-of-life vehicles and leading to the production of copper, zinc, tin, gold and silver.
• An unconventional hydrometallurgical process targeting “poor” electronic circuits for the production of tin, a concentrate of precious metals and a copper concentrate which can notably feed the BIOLIX process for producing Cu cathodes. BIOLIX is currently being industrialized on one of Comet’s industrial sites.

Rare-Earth Elements sector

The resource overview concerning electric mobility products also impacts the REE sector. In CISTEMEEC, this sector value chain will be developed through the unique REEFINE hydrometallurgical process, currently at TRL 5, for the production of mixed REE oxides with purity greater than 98.5% from permanent magnets contained in the rotors of electric motors.

In parallel with the progress of the CISTEMEEC project at the regional level, GeMMe and Comet have been participating since January 1, 2024, in the HORIZON Europe MAGELLAN project which aims to support the revolution in the electric vehicle industry through a cutting-edge technological and economical approach. This is to improve the sustainability and resilience of the European Electric Vehicle Traction Motor (“EVTM”) industry.

This ambitious initiative, coordinated by Orano, a global leader in nuclear technologies and energy solutions, brings together leading experts from various disciplines - materials science, EVTM design, manufacturing, recycling and end users - to develop a value chain of highly efficient and durable rare earth permanent magnets. The MAGELLAN project is made up of 15 partners from 8 EU countries.

MAGELLAN will design new magnet manufacturing processes using recycled secondary materials as well as raw materials supplied by markets when necessary. Different methods will be applied to sort and characterize permanent magnets at the end of their life. Magnet recycling will require specific preparation (oxide and coating removal) and operations (melting and/or pulverization) to transform the used magnets into secondary raw materials (powders) available for new magnet production, thus rendering the process circular. One of the objectives of the project is to minimize the dispersion and dilution of heavy rare earths and to avoid recycling which would lead to a loss of quality of the magnets (“downcycling”) and to support the labeling of magnets.

Europe

On March 16, 2023, the European Commission presented a draft regulation on critical materials (CRM Act), which proposes to strengthen the entire value chain of metals and metallurgy in the EU: extraction, transformation and the recycling of metals necessary for the energy transition. It sets for 2030 the objective of 10% for local extraction, 40% to be processed in the EU and 25% to emanate from recycled materials with the maximum threshold for dependence on a single supplier at 65%.

The adoption of the “CRM Act” regulation in 2024 represents a major political event in the context of raw materials in Europe and reinforces the relevance of a project such as CISTEMEEC.

ULiège participates in the CISTEMEEC project through three research entities:

1. GeMMe is a research group specialized in georesources, mineral engineering and extractive metallurgy. Drawing on a long tradition of research in the extraction and processing of primary ores, the GeMMe contributes to the development of disruptive processes for the efficient management of mineral and metallic resources through its expertise in characterization, innovative sorting and hydrometallurgy techniques applied to urban ores.
2. GREEnMat is a research laboratory specializing in the pilot-scale synthesis, shaping and characterization of powders and suspensions for applications related to energy, the environment and health. It has strong expertise and a unique infrastructure dedicated to the pilot-scale synthesis of active materials for batteries, the shaping of these materials for the production of electrodes as well as the design and characterization of batteries.
3. Within the Chemical Engineering Research Unit, the PEPs group (Products, Environment, and Processes) is active in the fields of (bio-) chemical reaction engineering, thermal and mechanical unit operations, process simulation, low carbon energy systems and sustainable development.  More specifically, PEPs will use its expertise in Eco-design and environmental assessment of processes and products based on Life Cycle Analysis.

The CISTEMEEC project activities are being carried out over a period of 4 years. On the basis of processes demonstrated at TRL stages 3 to 6 at the start of the project, industrial pilots and demonstrators will be implemented in order to reach TRL stages 6 to 8 for the Li-ion battery, copper and rare earth elements value chains originating form ELVs and WEEE.

Contacts

Philippe GIARO, Senior Research Officer, GeMMe research group, ULiège

Frédéric BOSCHINI, R&D Powder Manager, GREEnMat research group, ULiège

Angélique LEONARD, Professor, Chemical Engineering, PEPs research group, ULiège

 

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