Project description
Electric vehicles showcase a circular economy approach
Electric vehicles are associated with environmentally friendly programmes to reduce the combustion of fossil fuels, and they are a key enabler of our low-carbon transition. However, despite the fact that the lithium-ion batteries (LIB) powering the vehicles can be recycled – and that they contain valuable metals and other materials that can be recovered, processed and reused – most of them end up in landfills. Their numbers are skyrocketing, presenting a serious waste management problem. The EU-funded CoReco project will address this challenge with an innovative process that recovers 98 % of four commercially important metals present in LIB, including cobalt at nearly 100 % purity for reuse in LIB manufacturing.
Objective
The Black Mass is a residue of the Li-ion spent batteries (LIB) composed by Cobalt, Nickel, Manganese, Copper, Lithium, Iron and Carbonates, currently disposed as special waste for the lack of cost-competitive metals recovery technologies. The steep growth of electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) market, projected to reach respectively 25 million and 7.6 million units by 2025, is leading to an unparalleled increase of the Black Mass amount to be disposed (up to 4 million tons by 2025) with an unsustainable expense for the industrial players (100 €/ton). But the Black Mass is a potential source of Cobalt, a critical material for the battery manufacturing: today, more than 60% of the global Cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a steeply growing trend of its price due to political instability and market demand increase. Cobalt price is highly fluctuating, but it is foreseen to reach >100 €/kg from 2022, with an extra cost of 600 M€/year for EV industry. Recycling the Cobalt contained in the spent batteries would allow to mitigate the price and reduce the dependence of European companies on imports.
CoReco is an innovative and cost competitive process able to recover Cobalt, Nickel, Manganese and Copper contained in the Black Mass derived from the recycling of LIB with high purity. CoReco uses 2 innovative solutions: a Top Blown Rotary Converter for smelting, much more efficient and compact than competing solutions; a single reactor for all subsequent hydrometallurgical purification steps. CoReco is able to recover 98% of Ni, Co, Mn and Cu contained in the Black Mass and to reach > 99% purity of the Cobalt for reuse as secondary raw material for the LIB manufacturing. The compactness and low CAPEX of the plant makes CoReco the most competitive recycling solution on the market: the target Cost of Recovery (CoR) is < 1,200 €/ton (including CAPEX and OPEX), 30% less than competing solutions, making recycling industrially viable.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- natural sciences chemical sciences electrochemistry electric batteries
- social sciences social geography transport electric vehicles
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry inorganic compounds
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry transition metals
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
26016 SPINO D'ADDA CR
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.