Across Europe, battery recycling is moving from pilot scale to industrial reality. To secure critical raw materials and meet the ambitions of the EU Battery Regulation, Europe needs not just better processes in the lab, but robust, scalable infrastructure in real factories and logistics hubs. The BeyondBattRec project is contributing exactly at this interface – developing advanced pre‑processing and environmentally friendly recovery routes that can be integrated into industrial operations.
Why pre‑processing is the missing link
Today’s industrial recycling lines are often optimized for specific cell formats or chemistries and rely heavily on shredding‑based approaches. This leads to process complexity, variable black mass quality and, in many cases, sub‑optimal recovery of lithium and other valuable elements. At the same time, the volume and diversity of end‑of‑life batteries in Europe is growing rapidly, driven by electric vehicles, stationary storage and consumer electronics.
Pre‑processing – including safe deactivation, automated disassembly, targeted separation of components and optimized conditioning of black mass – is therefore becoming a strategic bottleneck. If this stage is inefficient, downstream hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical processes cannot unfold their full potential, no matter how advanced they are. BeyondBattRec aims to close this gap by delivering modular, scalable pre‑processing solutions that improve safety, recovery rates and overall process economics.
Industrial perspectives: Siemens
As a technology partner in BeyondBattRec, Siemens contributes its expertise in digitalization, automation and process control. From their perspective, the future of battery recycling is strongly data‑driven. Modern recycling plants will not only sort and shred; they will increasingly use data to to better understand, predict and adapt operations in real time.
In such an environment, robust pre‑processing is a precondition for stable and efficient operations. Siemens is particularly interested in:
- Automating pre-processing steps such as discharging and disassembly to make them faster, safer and less dependent on manual intervention
- Applying data analytics to predict process performance and adjust parameters to the specific properties of incoming batteries, supported by battery passport data and incoming quality assessments
- Developing algorithms and software solutions that enable more autonomous process control, increase throughput and improve overall operational efficiency
Within BeyondBattRec, Siemens explores how digital technologies can strengthen novel pre-processing routes by improving control, reducing risks and enabling more consistent performance under industrial conditions. The focus is on developing and validating technologies that enhance automation and support more efficient operation.
The goal is to support the transition towards flexible recycling systems that can handle varying battery types and qualities—helping to advance battery recycling in Europe to the next stage.
Industrial perspectives: VARTA
VARTA brings another crucial perspective: that of a battery manufacturer and user of recycled materials. For producers, recycling is not just a legal obligation; it is also a strategic opportunity to secure secondary raw materials with a lower environmental footprint and higher supply security.
From VARTA’s standpoint, two aspects are particularly important:
- Quality of recycled materials: Consistent purity and predictable composition of recovered metals and active materials are essential if they are to be reintegrated into high‑performance batteries. This strongly depends on the quality of upstream pre‑
- Design for recycling: Insights from BeyondBattRec’s pre‑processing research can inform future cell and pack designs. If batteries are designed with easier disassembly, labeling and material separation in mind, downstream recycling becomes more efficient and economically attractive.
By participating in BeyondBattRec, VARTA can feed its practical know‑how about cell design, production and performance requirements into the development of new pre‑processing concepts. In return, the company gains early access to technologies and data that may support future closed‑loop strategies and help to reduce the carbon footprint of its products.
Building a European recycling ecosystem
What unites partners like Siemens and VARTA in BeyondBattRec is the recognition that battery recycling is not a single technology, but a system. It spans collection, logistics, pre‑processing, metallurgical recovery, refining and finally the reuse of materials in new products. To make this system work at scale in Europe, several conditions must come together:
- Safe and efficient handling of diverse battery formats and chemistries.
- Flexible pre‑processing that provides high‑quality input for different recycling routes.
- Digital, automated plants that can adapt to changing feedstocks and regulatory requirements.
- Strong collaboration between technology providers, manufacturers, recyclers and research organizations.
BeyondBattRec contributes to this emerging ecosystem by connecting laboratory research with industrial practice. With partners such as Siemens and VARTA, the project demonstrates how new pre‑processing approaches can be translated into real‑world solutions – helping Europe to build the resilient battery recycling infrastructure it needs for a sustainable, electrified future.
Picture credits: Produced by acib with Perplexity