The interest for BID 2024 in Barcelona was great, sold out and participated by hundreds also on-line. It is a joint event arranged by Battery 2030+, BEPA, Batteries Europe and two IPCEIs, VDI/VDE and ACC. How can we in Europe be competitive? As most is aware of, we need to manage upscaling of the batteries better. Europe needs to step up to match the low production cost for batteries and EVs in China. How can Europe answer, and in a sustainable way? We need to join forces and align strategies Johan Blondell, policy officer for Clean Energy Transitions at the EC, said in his introductory speech.
As usually the conference mixed policy and more scientifically oriented talks. Montse Casas Cabanas at CIC Energigune and partner to B 2030+ gave some valuable insights and future outlook for solid state batteries. Eliana Quartone from the University of Pavia, and project leader for the B 2030+ research project Renovate, talked about the challenges for closed loop recycling and how to get near to zero waste in the recycling streams.
Fig 1. Montse Casas Cabanas first person from the left
Fig 2. Eliana Quartone
The costly cathodes
Cathode accounts for approximately 50 percent of the overall cell´s cost. To find the “window of opportunity” that balance battery performance and sustainability was the theme for Marina Urbina at CEA. She is also part of Battery 2030+ and SAGELi, an upcoming project under the B 2030+ umbrella. Process innovation and look at low-cost chemistries is of course basic, but sustainability must be brought in as well. According to Marina Urbina the HLM (high lithium manganese oxides) chemistries present a good, if not the best, candidate for optimized performance/sustainability/cost.
Recycling for circularity
Guinevere Giffin from Fraunhofer ISC, and part of both B 2030+ and ReUse, (a B 2030+ project), gave a brief overview of the different methods to recycle batteries; pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy and direct recycling. The first two are established methods and have different pro and cons. Direct recycling, “the holy grail” for recycling, will be mainly used for production scrap like electrodes and jelly rolls in the short term, Guinevere Giffin claimed. On the to-do list is the further development different methods for each process step, some preferably together with the equipment manufacturers. In the best case, concepts which would enable “Design for Circularity” should already be considered during the battery design phase.
Fig 3. Guinevere Giffin
Stefan Wolf, VDI/VDE, a partner to B 2030+, shared reflections on the trip to US and Canada that Batteries Europe arranged earlier this fall. He concluded that US successfully pursues an active industrial policy with adequate funding, but there are uncertainties concerning the new administration. Canada is well positioned, focus is upwards integration, from mining to materials processing and battery manufacturing. Canada’s export dependency on the US market is large, where protectionist measures, political uncertainty and an EV market stagnation is expected in the coming years. Sustainability is not nearly an issue in the US to the same extent as in EU. Instead, national security is at the core of the US battery strategy.
Next year we meet again in Graz in Austria to network and share experiences to build competence for a competitive, sustainable battery value chan.