Date: 9 September 2024
Format: Online [via Microsoft Teams, access link]
Time: 9:00 am to 13:00 pm (CEST)
Special feature: A virtual tour of the LIFE DRONE plant
Participation is free of charge

The application of batteries has been steadily increasing over the past two decades driven by the growing market of consumer electronics. Electrodes materials including strategic or critical raw materials such as graphite, cobalt, nickel and manganese, which account for more than 50% of the battery cost, need to be recovered from EU resources and recycled into the batteries manufacturing chain to reduce the environmental impact and prevent the dispersion of hazardous elements into the environment. A major bottleneck hindering the recovery of batteries materials at large scale today is the elevated cost of implemented recycling processes, such as pyro and hydrometallurgical recycling.

The LIFE DRONE project aims to demonstrate a novel recycling route for different end-of-life (EoL) lithium-ion battery (LIB) types showing significantly lower processing cost and better environmental impact as compared to the alternative state of the art (SoA) processes.

Having reached the final stages of the project, LIFE DRONE is inviting interested stakeholders to participate at the final conference, providing the results and the outcomes of the actions carried out by the project during almost four years of research:

• Design and construction of a mobile plant to perform the synthesis of the Nickel, Manganese and Cobalt (NMC) oxide
• Process demonstration
• Validation of produced materials by preparation of 10 Li-ion cells (capacity 10-20 Ah)
• Evaluation of the process economic feasibility
• Life cycle assessment of the proposed recycling route
• Elaboration of a replicability plan in a different EU member state
• Elaboration of a business plan large scale industrial application

The conference will feature presentations on the project outcomes, discussions on the impact of drone technology on environmental monitoring, and opportunities for Q&A with the team of experts. The conference will also include a virtual tour of the LIFE DRONE plant.