Secondo la proposta del Pacchetto Fit for 55 su Energia e Clima presentato a luglio 2021 dalla Commissione UE, dal 2035 si potranno vendere solo veicoli a zero emissioni di CO2, quindi solo modelli elettrici oppure fuel-cell a idrogeno. Questo avrà un considerevole impatto sui volumi di batterie al litio a fine vita che si produrranno negli anni successivi, e che in un’ottica di economia circolare dovranno essere gestiti in modo più sostenibile. In questo intervento parleremo di processi e tecnologie che abilitano il riuso delle batterie al litio per applicazioni stazionarie e il loro riciclo finalizzato al recupero dei materiali di valore. Relatore: 🎤 Nicoletta Picone, Unità di Ricerca e Sviluppo in Cobat

1. L’economia circolare applicata alle auto
elettriche: processi e tecnologie per il riciclo e il
second-life delle batterie al litio
Tesla Club Italy Revolution, Bologna 17 Settembre 2022

2. 2
• Jobplaces and welfare
(12 million jobplaces, 780 billion turnover,
140 billion value added)
• Citizens’ quality of life
• Environmental sustainability
• Sustains other supply chains
(materials, electronics, machine tools,
automation, etc.)
• Triggers innovation in other sectors
Automotive
industry
one of the most
relevant manufacturing
industry
in Europe
Traditional
Fuel Vehicles
Electric &
Hybrid Electric
Vehicles (E&HEVs)
Paradigm Shift
By 2040 the 60% of
the newly sold
vehicles will be
electric*
Li-Ion Battery
(LIB) packs
constitute one of the most
important car components
accounting for 1/3 of the
cost of the electric vehicle
Reference Context
*Source: Bloomberg, New Energy Finance

3. 3
• Increasing global demand of LIBs
• Lithium Ion Batteries: Highest growth and major part of the
investments
• Lead acid batteries: By far the most important market (>60%
market share)
• Growing Sales of Electric Vehicles: A Significant Opportunity
for Li-ion Batteries Market
Source: AVICENNE Energy 2021
The worldwide Li-ion battery market: 1990-2020
Li-ion battery market
Reference Context

4. 4
Reference Context
Others: medical devices, power
tools, gardening tools, e-bike, etc.
Source: AVICENNE Energy 2019
Li-ion battery sales: 2000-2030 (MhW Worldwide)
Li-ion battery market
• Increasing global demand of LIBs
• Lithium Ion Batteries: Highest growth and major part of the
investments
• Lead acid batteries: By far the most important market (>70%
market share)
• Growing Sales of Electric Vehicles: A Significant Opportunity
for Li-ion Batteries Market
• From 230 GWh in 2020 to >1,3 TWh in 2030
• Increasing global demand of LIB just for EV in the next 15
years will be required 65-fold the current amount of
graphite, Ni and Al and 100 times for Li, Co and Mn
(Bloomberg, 2017).
• In 2040 between 70 and 550 Mio kg of EV wasted LIBs
(Natkunarajah et al., 2015) will have to be treated.

5. Reference Context
Current processes for Li-ion battery treatment
• The well established recycling processes
at industrial level are mainly
mechanical/thermal-based treatments
• Pyrometallurgy
• Electrolyte de-activation
• Adaptation of recycling processes based and used
in other areas (i.e. mining)  Not-optimized and
low capacity process
• Except some major OEMs dismantling their EV
battery packs in-house, the reuse of Li-ion
batteries as secondary storage applications is not
very diffused (best practices of SMEs)
10
Pre-treatment Plant
Recycling Plant

6. 6
From linear….to circular
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES
Product re-design, de- and
remanufacturing, robotics, inspection
BUSINESS MODELS
New service-oriented business models
LEGISLATION & INCENTIVES
DIGITAL INNOVATION
IoT, Smart products, cloud-based platform, data
analytics, process/system simulation, Things
Lifecycle Management
VALUE-CHAIN BUILDING
Cross-sectorial industrial symbiosys,
ecosystems
ENABLING FACTORS:
LINEAR
CIRCULAR

7. 7
EU is not currently prepared to efficiently manage the
End-Of-Life of E&HEVs
Lack of consolidated processes and technologies for
E&HEVs EOL
Lack of re-use value chains for E&HEVs EOL
Unclear sustainability of re-use circular business
models
Low volume, unstable and unpredictable supply of
post-use products (ramp-up phase)
Lack of market for second-use products and risk of
market un-acceptance
Regulation does not support re-use
Components are not designed to be re-used
Techical Challenges & Objectives
Development of an advanced de- and remanufacturing
strategy to efficiently establish a second life for the
E&HEVs components
De- and remanufacturing processes including:
• re-use: testing, characterization, automated
disassembly, and reassembly
• recycling: combination of mechanical pre-
treatment and hydrometallurgical processes
Intelligent and reconfigurable systems
implementing collaborative robots for the
disassembly and reassembly process
ICT platforms for data managing and sharing
within the whole process/value-chain
Enabling the value-chain interaction as well as the
cross-sectorial and cross-regional interactions
Future Strategies
Current Challenges

8. 8
Legislative Challenges & Objectives
Current Directives
Norm Field of Application Main tasks
Directives on ELVs
Directive
2000/53/EC
Management of End of
Life Vehicle (ELV)
Policy for waste production, recycling, reuse
and disposal; EPR; Best practices for
“recycling facility”.
Directive
2005/64/EC
Management of motor
vehicles
Reusability, recyclability and recoverability of
motor vehicles.
Specific Directives on Batteries
Directive
2006/66/EC
Spent portable batteries;
Spent Industrial batteries
(included Li-ion
automotive battery)
The Regulation 2006/66 EC was developed for
Batteries, deriving from Consumers or
Professional (industrial) users, and define also
the principle of EPR of the OEM/Producer.
Take-back system, collection and Recycling
aspects are defined.
EU Directive
493/2012 CE
Requirements for the
“efficient recycling
process”
Norm establishes instruments for the
calculation of recycling efficiency, KPIs for the
evaluations of the recycling efficiency.
Directives on waste transportation
Basel
Convention
ADR Reg.
Transportation between
EU countries;
Rules for the
transportation; Packaging
of “dangerous” goods
Requirements for transportation between EU
countries (notifications forms, modules for
declarations, rules, etc.). Definition of codes
characterizing different kind of wastes.
Carriage and packaging suggestions and/or
obligation.
Regulation
1013/2006
Waste shipment
regulation;
ELV shipment
This Regulation establishes procedures and
control regimes for the shipment of waste.
Strategic Measures
Strategic Action Plan on Batteries (2018): design an
innovative and future proof regulation, covering the
entire value chain (supported by EBA stakeholders)
Green Deal: Legislative proposal in support of the
Strategic Action Plan on Batteries and the circular
economy for October 2020
EU Battery Regulation
Circular Economy Action Plan – CEAP (March 2020);
new legislative proposal on batteries:
• New rules for improvement of collection and recycling
rates for all batteries
• Use of alternatives to the non-rechargeable batteries
• Sustainability and transparency requirements for
batteries (footprint, ethical sources of raw materials)

9. 10
Collection
Testing and
characterization
Disassembly
Mechanical
pre-treatment
Hydrometallurg
ical process
Recovered materials
characterization
Testing Reassembly
Final testing and
certification
Scraps
Scraps
Recovery of compounds
Li, Co, Ni, Mn, Fe, C and other
metals
Stationary applications
Non-stationary applications
100% sustainable
system for LIBs
Aiming at preserving the
product functionality or
the re-usability of
embedded CRMs
From current approach…
• Open look recycling: to apply pyro-metallurgical processes for cobalt (and sometimes Lithium) recycling
• Direct re-use of battery packs: to directly reuse the battery pack for stationary applications
However, the lack of information sharing (e.g. variety of battery cell architectures, the hazardous risks of damaged batteries) and of a
structured reverse logistics value chain causes a dramatic value drop in the currently exploited circular economy strategies.
ICT Platform
…to future de- and remanufacturing strategy
From current…to future

10. R&D Activities on LIBs
Lithium
Box
Hydro
Process
DigiPrime
CarE-
Service
Hydrometallurgical process for the
treatment of the lithium batteries and
recovery of the metals contained therein
Cobat Box for LIBs transport according
to the P911 (Approved by BAM)
CarE-Service - “Circular
Economy Business Models
for innovative hybrid and
electric mobility through
advanced reuse and
remanufacturing
technologies and services”
www.careserviceproject.eu
DigiPrime - “Digital Platform
for Circular Economy in Cross-
sectorial Sustainable Value
Networks”
www.digiprime.eu

11. 12
Network
National Associations European Partnerships
MOTUS-E is the first Italian
Association to bring together
industries, transport sector, academia,
consumer associations and opinion
movements, to favour the transition
towards a more sustainable model of
mobility.
In line with the objectives of
promoting a green economy, the
Foundation undertakes to stimulate,
support and facilitate the change of
the current production and
consumption model to achieve the
objectives of the green economy and,
with it, of circularity.
It is a project launched by the
“Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile”
and supported by a first group of
companies and organizations from
different economic sectors, as a tool
capable of promoting the development of
the Circular Economy in Italy.
The States General of the Green
Economy are a process of strategic,
open and participatory elaboration
which involves the main stakeholders of
the Italian green economy. Promoted
by 66 business organizations with the
patronage of the European
Commission.
Eucobat is the European association of
national collection schemes for batteries.
They assure that all waste batteries are
collected and recycled in an ecological
sound way, and contribute this way to a
better environment.
The WEEE Forum is the world's largest
multi-national centre of competence
for the management of WEEE. It is a
not-for-profit association of 40 WEEE
producer responsibility
organisations across the world.
WEEElogic is a pan-European one stop compliance hub for take
back & recycling of WEEE (Waste of Electrical and Electronic
Equipment), Waste batteries and Waste packaging.
Reneos (www.reneos.eu) is the European network of top national battery collection systems
providing tailor-made solutions for end-of-life EV batteries. Taking advantage of Reneos
membership, Cobat can ensure a cross-regional interaction for the provision of end-of-life EV
batteries for the RE-LIFE project activities.

12. 13
Thanks for the attention!
Luigi De Rocchi
R&D Manager of COBAT
Via Vicenza, 29
00185-ROMA (ITALY)
Tel.: 00 39 06 48795.208
email: l.derocchi@cobat.it
Nicoletta Picone
R&D Senior Specialist
Via Vicenza, 29
00185-ROMA (ITALY)
Tel.: 00 39 06 48795.202
email: n.picone@cobat.it
www.cobat.it cobatservizi cobat.it cobat_consorzio