Project description
Sustainable graphite upcycling for electrocatalysis
The advancement of electric mobility technology is accompanied by an increase in the amount of lithium-ion battery waste. Under the EU Green Deal, the recycling of critical raw material, including lithium and cobalt, is mandatory. However, it ignores the graphite waste which would normally end up in landfills. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SURGE project will make use of waste enriched with graphite and develop valuable carbon materials used in energy conversion. This project will introduce two new technological processes, such as graphite recovery and fluoride mineralisation within conventional hydrometallurgy recycling techniques. Moreover, it will help to meet the objectives set out by the EU on CRMs and eliminate fluoride pollution.
Objective
The rapid expansion of electric mobility has led to an exponential rise in lithium-ion battery (LIB) production and large volumes of end-of-life LIB waste. In response, the European Commission, under the EU Green Deal (2023), has introduced new recycling policies with mandatory recovery of Critical Raw materials (CRM) including metals such as lithium, nickel, copper, and cobalt. This recycling strategy overlooks the major non-metallic fraction in graphite present in the hydrometallurgical leach residue and typically landfilled.
SURGE utilizes this graphite-rich residue as an untapped resource for high value carbon materials for energy conversion applications. The project establishes a strategic pipeline for incorporating graphite recovery and fluoride mineralization steps into conventional hydrometallurgical recycling process to achieve EU’s CRM goals as well as mitigate fluoride contamination concern in wet metallurgy. SURGE will go beyond current recycling practices by upcycling the recovered graphite into high-performance, Platinum-free oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts for fuel cells and metal-air batteries. This approach directly supports circular economy principles, closing the loop of LIB recycling while reducing reliance on scarce and expensive platinum-group metals for energy conversion.
The SURGE consortium brings together the MSCA fellow, Luleå University of Technology as the host institution under the supervision of Prof. Sadia Ilyas, with structured training at University of Lorraine (France). This collaborative framework will foster cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer in materials science, extractive metallurgy, electrocatalysis, circular economy principles and career development skills. Successful completion of project will position fellow as an independent scientist capable of driving high-impact projects that contribute to Europe’s green transition.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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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.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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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.
971 87 LULEA
Sweden
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