The European Commission has invited Finland to coordinate the research related to recycling in the battery industry. Outotec will lead the project together with Aalto University’s Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. Business Finland, a public research funding agency, is also strongly involved in advancing the project.

Due to the rapidly growing demand for electric cars, the recycling of battery raw materials and equipment will become ever more important. The European Commission has compiled a strategic action plan to develop an innovative, sustainable and competitive battery ecosystem including recycling. Outotec’s Director of Sustainability, Dr Ilkka Kojo has been nominated to lead the battery recycling sub-group of the implementation working group. The first task of the sub-group is to pilot new ways to collaborate in research and innovations. Further, the goal is to define a long-term vision, strategic research agenda and action plans.

“The pilot project will cover collaboration in the entire battery recycling process starting from the collection and processing of raw materials. The objective is to return, in an economically viable way, as big a proportion as possible of the battery materials to battery production and connect recycling with the primary production,” says Ilkka Kojo.
“The expertise and the tools that have created internationally competitive cleantech know-how in Finland in the primary production of metals will now be harnessed, along with the electrification process, to improve the circular economy of battery metals,” says Mari Lundström, Assistant Professor of Hydrometallurgy at Aalto University.