After Wednesday’s sessions on the EU political agenda, which outlined strategic measures to meet industry needs, attention shifted to the annual workshop of the Materials for batteries hub. Now in its 4th edition, the event was co-organised by Horizon Europe projects RELiEF, FREE4LIB, RESPECT and LITHOS. The focus of the workshop, true to its eponymous theme, was tackling one of Europe’s most urgent challenges: securing sustainable raw materials for batteries.
Under the inauguration of Oliver Schenk, Member of the European Parliament, this edition unfolded under the auspices of urgency, regulatory clarity and cross-border collaboration. The MEP called for swift implementation of the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net Zero Industry Act, stressing the need for rapid permitting and the mobilisation of both public and private investment. “We cannot afford delays,” he warned. “This is about sovereignty.” His remarks were followed by strong appeals for cooperation among mining regions, manufacturing clusters, research centres and recycling hubs to build a resilient European value chain. He urged participants to contribute to upcoming legislative files, including the European Chips Act 2, the Circular Economy Act and the new EU budget, ensuring that the priorities of the battery materials community are embedded in future policies.
Nader Akil, founder of the Cluster Hub and moderator of the first technical session, emphasised on enhancing the dialogue between academia, industry and policy makers in order to ensure that these goals would be reached.
Following up with a presentation of his most recent scientific publication – “Lindy Effect in Hydrometallurgy” [co-authored with Dr. Ir. Peter Tom Jones] – Professor Koen Binnemans provided a frank look at the shortcomings in industrialising battery material innovations. Transferring hydrometallurgical advancements from lab to plant is slow, constrained by economics, regulation and what the authors call “the Lindy effect” – the tendency for established technologies to stand the test of time. Industry tends to favour incremental improvements to existing processes, such as reducing reagent consumption or increasing automation, rather than adopting entirely new chemistries, due to the high risks and costs associated with large-scale change. Launching a debating topic, audience questions shifted to technical and permitting challenges, concluding with the need for incremental innovation and pragmatic timelines.
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Various EU-funded R&I initiatives, members of the Cluster Hub, presented results and findings with the promise to reduce dependency on imports. LiCORNE project presented its intermediary results within the technical session “Mining and recovery”, alongside sister projects XRACT, CRM-Geothermal, METALLICO, ENICON LITHOS and RAWMINA.
Two panels framed the bigger picture. The first one, chaired by Nader Akil (PNO Innovation Belgium), addressed scaling up technologies and reducing mining’s environmental footprint, with strong emphasis on AI and data-driven processes.
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Europe stands at a turning point in its journey towards establishing a competitive European value chain for batteries. Important steps have been taken in encouraging battery manufacturing plants, only to mention here the inauguration of the first gigafactory by Northvolt in Sweden. Yet, the market demand for batteries continues to surge, fueled not only by the electric vehicle sector but also by other mobility applications and stationary storage needs. The recently launched Quarterly EU Electricity Market Report Q3 ’23 indicates over 600,000 new battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were registered in Q3 ’23, 36% higher than the corresponding quarter in 2022 and counting for 24% market share.
In response to these record demands, the European batteries research and innovation (R&I) community has been dedicated to supporting the establishment of this industrial value chain in Europe, aided by public funding, including by the European Union. Various R&I projects under the umbrella of the BATT4EU Partnership (established under Horizon Europe Programme in 2021), LiCORNE included, are sharing forces within the Cluster Hub “Production of materials for batteries from European resources” to address common challenges.
Motivated by the global geopolitical developments, the strategic role batteries play in achieving Green Deal objectives and the ever-evolving nature of battery technologies, Europe recognises the critical need for strategic alignment among stakeholders. Replacing the BATT4EU SRIA of 2021 and the Batteries Europe SRA of 2020, the 2024 SRIA outlines key strategic actions that the European Batteries R&I Community will undertake to advance collaborative research projects facilitated by the BATT4EU Partnership. Different from the previous strategic agendas, the 2024 roadmap goes beyond specific chemistries, leveraging also the power of disruptive (digital) technologies to advance research across all battery types, including material science, manufacturing and recycling processes.
The new agenda draws on the roadmaps published by Batteries Europe and Battery 2030+, compiling inputs from numerous European battery experts, offering recommendations on short, medium, and long-term objectives. It emphasises the need for coordinated action not only at the European level but also within national and regional programmes.
The 2024 SRIA points to the following six imperatives which are necessary to set the foundations and support a competitive battery value chain in Europe:
• Ensure that (BATT4EU) research results reach gigafactories and the markets, through pilots, demonstrators and improved decision making aided by digital tools.
• Increase the strategic autonomy of Europe by reducing the reliance on foreign critical raw materials by supporting local and circular supply chains and support research into different battery chemistries, including sodium-ion technologies.
• Improve battery affordability to accelerate the green transition and keep the European industry competitive by improving batteries based on materials that are more abundant and pushing for better integration into end-use applications.
• Improve the flexibility of battery manufacturing and recycling systems to reduce lock-in effects and respond quickly to changes in a rapidly developing industry.
• Implement a safe and sustainable by design framework for batteries, which plays to European strengths, and which will help reduce emissions and use of substances of concern, improve safety and allow for the integration of smart functionalities.
• Support the continuity of excellent European battery research and academic-industrial cooperation by improving access to research facilities and pilot lines, use research projects to build up a skilled workface, and by avoiding gaps in research through continued funding, which will bind talented researchers to Europe.
BATT4EU Partnership is organising a webinar on 20 March 2024, between 10:00 and 11:30 Brussels time. The aim is to present the official document and to host engaging discussions with the experts behind this publication who will explain how this document will redefine the dynamics for the European battery sector.
Register here