Eco-friendly and sustainable method for recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries

EcoLIB is a collaborative multidiscipline project, funded by Interreg Aurora programme, aiming to develop an innovative sustainable, cost effective, and eco-friendly solution for spent Li-ion batteries (LIBs) recycling.

EcoLIB's main objective is to overcome the common deficiencies in today's recycling technologies, i.e., inefficient separation of valuable metals, high costs of multiple recycling steps, and hazardous effect of fluorine accumulation and emission during recycling.

The key idea of EcoLIB is to develop an innovative and cost-efficient thermal pretreatment method to improve the recovery of valuable components from spent lithium-ion batteries. This pre-treatment step facilitates efficient separation of valuable cathode metals, graphite and recovery of the electrolyte, binder and other volatile matter.

Finally, EcoLIB will investigate the production of a new cell prototype from solely recycled materials including electrolyte.

Lead Partner EU

University of Oulu

Project Partners

Luleå University of Technology

Akkuser Oy

Tracegrow Oy

Associate partners

Northvolt Ett AB

The EcoLIB project contributes to the Sustainable development Goals.