The negative environmental impacts results from the linear ‘take, make, dispose’ and dominant economic models of our time, traditionally adopted by decision-making of main stakeholders around mobility are changing thank to EV's irruption, but Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) are not yet green enough to reduce mobility footprint to lowest levels. Thus, recycling has to be developed to achieve higher efficiencies and recovery rates to reintroduce Critical Raw Materials from End-of-Life (EOL) LIBs. Recycling technology is still at the lab-scale due to the complex structure of EOL LIBs. Currently, pyro-metallurgy is the most applied method in the industry. Although this process does not need pre-treatment, its energy-wasting, the equipment investment is large and it will cause serious pollution. In response to these problems, many companies have developed hydrometallurgical processes, that can recover Li and Al with low energy consumption. However, it requires pre-treatment, leaching, purification and other steps, and it could be a long way. FREE4LIB aims to develop at TRL 5-6 technologies to achieve 6 new sustainable and efficient processes to recycle EOL LIBs (dismantling, pre-treatment and 4 materials recovery processes) delivering innovative recycling solutions to reach highly efficient materials recovery (metal oxides, metals and polymers) improving the supply of secondary resources at EU level. FREE4LIB also will deliver 3 processes aiming at metals and polymers re-using and electrode synthesis for re-manufacturing new LIBs, and it will study options to harness non-reusable elements. It will also deliver a Battery Passport (BP) methodology to improve processes traceability. Besides, 2 Open Platforms will be deployed: BP and Data-driven models for the process’s optimisation. At end, to validate and spread FREE4LIB: new LIBs will be assembled on battery packs and engagement activities with citizens, policymakers and battery stakeholder will be carried out, respectively.

+C2Fue-LS aims to develop a direct cold plasma-catalysis pathway, combined with hybrid bio-/nano-catalysis, to efficiently produce alcohols from CO2 recycling, green hydrogen, and renewable electricity. The project focuses on the challenging CO2 plasma-hydrogenation to formaldehyde, followed by its selective conversion to alcohols of precise lengths using a novel formate carboxylase paired with advanced bimetallic nanocatalysts. These catalysts are encapsulated within porous Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and manufactured as digitally structured modules with hierarchical porous structures, enhancing plasma formation and facilitating substrate and product migration during the CO2-to-alcohol conversion. +C2Fue-LS targets high-efficient and selective production of aviation and shipping fuels operating under mild conditions (≤100 ºC, ambient pressure). By leveraging plasma effects—pioneering in room temperature catalysis—and encapsulating hybrid bio-, chemo-, and nano-catalysts within MOFs and digitally structured modules, the project will significantly reduce the energy barriers and boosts process efficiency and selectivity, producing alcohols as fuels and chemicals without the need of additional purification steps. The project’s modular approach allows for the selective synthesis of various alcohols, including ethanol, under sustainable and energy-efficient conditions. +C2Fue-LS encompasses several key objectives, as (I) Development of innovative plasma-, bio-, nano-, and chemo-catalysts, (II) the design of advanced catalyst carriers with controlled active site distribution, (III) advanced characterization by ex- and in- situ/operando techniques for mechanistic understanding, (IV) lab-scale validation of the technology, including safety assessments, (VI) comprehensive environmental, techno-economic, and socio-economic evaluations. All in all, +C2Fue-LS represents a breakthrough technology in CO2 conversion into valuable alcohols as fuels and added value chemicals.