With the acceleration of the energy transition, the electric vehicle market is already experiencing exponential growth, albeit with a few bumps in the road. Sales are expected to reach 17 million by 2024, or more than one in five cars sold worldwide (source: IEA). This dazzling growth is accompanied by massive production of batteries, posing a crucial ecological challenge: what to do with these thousands of batteries at the end of their life?
Electric vehicle batteries contain precious metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium – and these are infinitely recyclable.
As an industrial player committed to promoting a sustainable value chain, Eramet is developing innovative solutions for recycling lithium-ion batteries, with a view to supporting the circular economy and helping to secure metal supplies for Europe’s energy transition.
Eramet Ideas, our Research & Innovation center, has developed a “closed-loop” recycling process.
Unlike conventional processes, this process recycles metals while preserving their physical and chemical properties, so that they can be reused ad infinitum in the design of new lithium-ion batteries.
The process is based on hydrometallurgical refining of blackmass from electric vehicle batteries.
Launched in 2018 in partnership with Suez, the ReLieVe project aimed to develop a complete collection and recycling chain for batteries at the end of their life cycle and for scraps from manufacturing plant.
A demonstration plant was launched in 2023 at the Eramet Ideas site in Trappes (France) to test the process on a pre-industrial scale.
Despite the suspension of the project in October 2024, due to the slow development of European battery production plants, Eramet remains convinced that there is a need to develop a circular economy for critical metals on European soil.
The European Union is driving the transition to electric mobility through proactive regulations. The targets set include a reduction in CO2 emissions for new cars by 2030, a planned ban on petrol and diesel vehicles from 2035, and tougher requirements on battery recycling and durability. These measures create a major impetus for the development of innovative recycling solutions such as those supported by Eramet, which is still awaiting a competitive and sustainable business model.
An essential component of electric batteries, lithium is a metal with a bright future, and Eramet is investing in it with one ambition: to become a benchmark player in metals for the energy transition.
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