16/06/2026
LiCORNE attends the final conference of projects FREE4LIB and RESPECT
LiCORNE project, represented by PNO, attended on 2 June the final conference of projects FREE4LIB and RESPECT – all members of the Cluster Hub “Materials for Batteries“. The event featured both scientific results of hosting projects, but also panel discussions that addressed various policies and topics across the battery value chain.
The conference did not settle every open question, but it did make one point difficult to ignore: the necessity to synchronise policy with industrial needs, making sure that materials circulate within Europe and building confidence for long-term investment.
Circularity has moved beyond engineering, recycling is no longer framed only as an environmental obligation.
The EU Batteries Regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net-Zero Industry Act have turned circularity into a question of competitiveness, traceability and supply security.
- These policies set the direction for the entire battery life cycle: carbon footprint, recycled content, due diligence, labelling, as well as end-of-life [EoL] obligations.
- The Battery Passport is now integrated part of the same framework, with a general agreement across the panels speakers, on its purpose: recyclers and second-life operators need data on chemistry, state of health [SoH] and battery architecture to operate safely and efficiently. Its usability remains limited by its capacity to stay ‘workable’.
- The concern lies in how this data is managed. Companies raised questions about ownership, confidentiality, intellectual property and cost of collecting and maintaining the data.
This distinction will matter if the passport is to become a working tool rather than another compliance burden. Information should be shared on a need-to-know basis. Not every data point needs to be disclosed to every actor. What matters is that the right data reaches the right user in a usable format.
Panel discussions also noted that the passport should not be seen purely through a recycling lens. It has a role in repair, diagnostics, repurposing and safety management throughout the battery’s life.
Clear political intent, but practical hurdles when projects move towards deployment. The investment case is not always there.
The EU framework is starting to influence demand. Europe wants more low-carbon production, more strategic manufacturing capacity and more value retained within its industrial base. The direction may become even more explicit with discussions around a possible Industrial Accelerator Act and “Made in Europe” requirements.
Demand for secondary materials is growing, but not always fast enough to justify the investments required. Speakers kept pointing at the importance of finding ways to reintegrate recycled materials back into manufacturing at scale.
Without enabling elements, capacity risks sitting idle:
- viable business cases
- stable regulation
- system where batteries can move safely across borders
These are also some of the conclusions of the upcoming whitepaper, co-signed by LiCORNE, which will bring together findings from EU-funded projects from the “Materials for Batteries Hub” and reflect on the conditions needed for scale-up, industrial uptake and more resilient European value chains.
Projects such as RESPECT recycling, FREE4LIB, BATRAW, RHINOCEROS and LiCORNE EU Project show that technical routes exist, from pre-treatment and direct recycling to lithium recovery and material reintegration. The gap appears when those routes meet permitting delays, financing constraints, uneven market demand, uncertainty over feedstock.
Design choices are (still) making recycling difficult.
Discussions around dismantling brought more practical tension into focus. Batteries are still designed primarily for performance, cost and weight reduction. This leads to welded structures, compact architectures and adhesives that are difficult to disassemble. Under these conditions, end-of-life treatment becomes slower, more complex and more expensive.
At a broader level, speakers shared opinions stating that circularity cannot be solved at the last recycling stage; it rather needs to move earlier in the development process, where design choices are still open.
Standardisation has its own limitations.
It can help in high-volume segments such as electric vehicle batteries, where automation requires predictable formats. On the other hand, in other segments, especially industrial batteries, one-solution-fits-it-all is not applicable. Saft representative, Clémence Siret, underlined the necessity of maintaining design flexibility able to align with the requirements of specific industrial applications and consumption profiles.
A more realistic path seems to be selective standardisation: common data, interfaces and safety information where they add value, while leaving room for design customisation where it is needed. This balanced approach was echoed across the panel, with contributions from Fabrice Stassin [BEPA – Batteries European Partnership Association], Dr. Franz Geyer [BMW Group], Aleix Vila Eurecat – Technology Centre and David Anguera Sempere ACCUREC-Recycling GmbH.
All conclusions lead to “upscaling” and reshaping R&I priorities in the next funding programmes
Horizon Europe projects can demonstrate processes such as direct recycling, advanced pretreatment or lithium recovery. The challenge begins when these processes need to operate at scale.
Several constraints were mentioned during the panel discussions:
- access to consistent feedstock
- long permitting timelines
- high upfront investment
- limited demand for secondary materials
- shortages of skilled workers
Production scrap came up as a near-term opportunity. Unlike end-of-life batteries, which will arrive in larger volumes later, scrap is already available. It offers a way to build experience and material flows in the shorter term.
Another, more subtle issue concerns project timelines. Recovered materials often become available late in the project cycle. This leaves little time to test them in new cells, adjust processes and validate performance. It is a practical lesson for the design of future programmes.
Low-value chemistries such as LFP add another layer. They contain fewer high-value metals, which makes recycling less attractive economically. Yet they still require safe and compliant treatment, pushing the sector to develop lower-cost approaches.
The RESPECT and FREE4LIB conference portrayed a sector becoming more mature about its constraints. But it also left participants with questions about how Europe can connect recycling to manufacturing, how recovered materials become bankable, how data can be shared without undermining competitiveness, and how policy can support deployment without creating complexity that slows it down.
In the coming months, LiCORNE, together with the Cluster Hub [🔗 https://www.materialsforbatterieshub.eu/] will continue translating project experience into reports, insights and policy-support documents on battery materials and circularity priorities. The aim is not simply to describe what European projects are doing, but to help identify what the sector needs next.