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March 5 - 10, 2023

Project Meeting, Marrakesh, Morocco

June 21 - 24, 2023

10th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management, Chania, Greece
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Project general information

Project: REcycling of spent Li-ion batteries and end-life photovoltaic panels: From the development of metal recovery processes to the implementation of a START-up
Financiar support: Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding - UEFISCDI
European Commission through LEAP-RE programme
Project code: COFUND-LEAP-RE-RESTART
Contract number: 291/2022
Period: 2022 - 2025

       Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are becoming the state-of-the art energy storage technology for the future, and they are increasingly applied in the automotive industry as well as for renewable energy storage. The global Li-ion battery market size, considering only Electrical Vehicles applications, is estimated to grow from USD 27.3 billion in 2021 to USD 67.2 billion by 2025. Simultaneously, there has been continuous growth since 2000s in the integration of renewable energy sources, such as huge production of photovoltaic (PV) modules; the total cumulative installed capacity reached 627 GW in 2019.

       These emerging technologies will result in two major issues in the future:
  • Supply issue: Growing need of critical materials, especially Cobalt, Silicon, Nickel, Aluminum, Gallium, Tellurium, Germanium, Lithium, Manganese;
  • Environmental issue: Wasted LiBs and PV panels (considered as hazardous waste) contain also harmful components which harm health and water resources, even provoke spontaneous fires.

    •        The main objective of RESTART Project is to implement a full value chain for recycling End-of-Life (EoL) LiBs and PV, shifting from linear economy to circular economy, thus reducing waste disposal as well as minimizing dependence on important primary materials. Major aspects will be covered:
  • Collection, disassembling and characterization of EoL LiBs and PV
  • Technology Development and scale-up of metals recovery processes
  • Demonstration of fresh Batteries build-up from recovered chemical elements
  • Sustainability: Life Cycle Assessment; assessment of Modules collection and handling protocols
  • Economy Business Plan based on the best cost performing recycling processes
  • Dissemination of the Project's outreaches for identification of key stakeholders
  • Implementation of a Start-up.

    •        The outcomes of RESTART on the creation of jobs (through dedicated capacity building and innovation) and implementation of real circular economy will serve as a model for the numerous African Countries through the large scientific and economic existing partnership.
          RESTART implements an interdisciplinary approach facilitated by its consortium that brings complementary expertise from top-level research institutions in EU and Africa to cover the entire recycling value chain. It will strictly comply with all national, AU and EU legislations on the matters of privacy and data protection. Any Intellectual Property generated in this project will be governed by the IPR rules described in the final Consortium Agreement. Furthermore, RESTART project, involving 7 females/20 members, will address the need for gender equality in its capacity building and peer-to-peer-exchange, to ensure that women are represented and involved in all aspects of the project.

           The methodology consists of:
  • The screening and development of advanced and innovative solutions for spent PV and battery processing (WP2, UM6P-UCA).
  • The characterization of the speciation of the used metals to select the appropriate recovery strategy. This requires a continuous analysis of the purity of recovered chemical elements to establish the balance between: Yield - Products purity - Cost and to compare with the composition of the wasted LiBs & PV before starting the chemical extraction (WP1, CEREGE & Aalto).
  • Thermoelectric materials and fresh batteries will be developed starting from recovered metals (Cathode: Co, Ni, Mn, Al & Anode: Si) and their performance will be compared with commercial batteries (WP3, UCA-KSIU).
  • Strategy for reactor design and upscaling will be developed for the most efficient process (WP4, UM6P) combining the techno-commercial assessment (UBB, WP5). Life cycle assessment and handling processes will be completed (Aalto, WP6).
  • Development of a detailed business model from the e-wastes collection to the valorization of the final products. The implementation of a Start-up in GEP will serve as a model for the African countries (WP7, GEP).

    • Project consortium

    African Partners

  • Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco (UCA) - project coordinator
         https://www.uca.ma/

  • Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Benguerir, Morocco (UM6P)
         https://www.um6p.ma/en

  • Green Energy Park, Benguerir, Morocco (GPE)
         https://www.greenenergypark.ma/#Contact

  • King Salman International University, Rad Sudr, Egypt (KSIU)
         https://ksiu.edu.eg/


    • European Partners

  • Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement, Aix en Provence, France (CEREGE)
         https://www.cerege.fr/en

  • Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Romania (UBB)
         https://www.ubbcluj.ro/en/

  • Aalto University, Otaniemi, Finland (AALTO)
         https://www.aalto.fi/en