SAGELi aims to develop safer materials and cells that meet Batteries Europe’s 2030 targets for safety, performance, lifetime, sustainability and cost including EUCAR level 20.2bn€ in 2035. Its materials are expected to be used in 40GWh of batteries produced in 2030, 600GWh produced in 2035, and 700 GWh produced in 2040, providing a cumulative 1.9Mt C02eq savings vs NMC811. Preliminary LCA also predicts reduced water use, other emissions and land-use vs NMC811.

The fact is that the lithium deposits within the EU are associated with different mineralizations in solid host rocks, except from the lithium brines of South America and Australia. These mineralizations require a special approach when processing and purifying happen up to battery grade lithium carbonate. Li4Life proposal creates of an efficient technology for the extraction of lithium from poor or complex ores of underutilised deposits, as well as post-mining tailings, as the basis for the development of future clean energy. Reference objects is potentially viable lithium projects have been identified in Europe from Finland in the North, through Germany, Austria and Czech Republic in Central Europe, to Spain and Portugal in the South-West. To cover the needs of the EU Battery Industry, Li4Life is aim to contribute an ambitious objective to increase the EU domestic supply of local raw materials by at least 5% to upcoming 2030. This is possible by creating an innovative value chain for domestic lithium raw materials. Li4Life's pathway to this ambition - novel processing methods, and purification up to battery-grade lithium carbonate to overcome existing barriers, namely the lack of a sustainable social licence to operate (SLO) and compliance with strict EU environmental laws.

The REE4EU project will develop, validate and demonstrate in 2 industrially relevant Pilots an innovative Rare Earth Alloys (REA) production route from Permanent Magnets (PM) and Secondary Batteries (SB) waste. Currently only 1% of RE waste is being recovered as no adequate process is available, so proof-of-concept in REE4EU will open-up a fully new route bringing recovery of 90% of in-process wastes from PM manufacturing within reach. The targeted integrated solution is based on recently developed lab-proven technologies for direct high-temperature electrolyses of REA production. It will be combined in the pilots with an innovative and proven Ionic Liquid Extraction or tailored hydrometallurgical pre-treatment to demonstrate dramatic improvements in cost and environmental performance compared to state of the art technologies. This includes avoidance of process steps (pure RE extraction and reprocessing), 50% energy savings, and 100% recycling of ionic liquids as opposed to disposal of strong acid leeching agents in state of the art pre-treatment steps. The project involves in its consortium the full value chain including (SME and large) RE metal producers, PM manufacturer, SME process engineering companies and LCA experts, (SME and large) electronics and battery recycling companies, SME technology transfer, innovation specialists as well as chemical and end-user associations. Together with 4 top research institutes on electrolyses, ionic liquids and RE recycling, they will prove technical and economic viability on in-process PM waste (swarf), as well as End-of-Life (EoL) PM and SB waste, develop urgently required market data on EoL RE availability and a triple value-chain business case for a new European secondary Rare Earth Alloys (REA) production sector, creating new jobs, increasing Europe’s independence from imports and providing valuable raw materials for fast growing European green-technology industries such as Electrical/Hybrid vehicles and Wind Turbines.