Europe – Lithium recovery is taking a major step forward
Accurec has specialized in raw material recovery from used batteries for 30 years. On December 1, 2025, another milestone was reached: In the presence of EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall and numerous international guests from politics, business, science and the media, a “unique European facility” capable of recovering lithium from all types of different lithium batteries was officially commissioned.
Sales figures for lithium-ion batteries are breaking all previous records. Household appliances, electric vehicles, and stationary energy storage systems consume significant and steadily increasing quantities of industrial metals and raw materials. These are considered largely to be critically important. However, the technical know-how and manufacturing expertise along the entire value chain are located almost exclusively in Asia.
Dr. Reiner Sojka, creative mind and managing partner of Accurec, explains:
In Asia, recycling processes are vertically integrated and were recognized early on as a crucial component.
”Furthermore, recycling as a cost-effective source of battery raw materials is heavily subsidized by the state, and operating costs are incomparably lower than in any European country. Simply ‘copying’ this proven and established Chinese technology into European cost structures can therefore never be competitive.”
For the first time, an innovative alternative process chain has been installed on a near-industrial scale in Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, capable of recovering lithium from all types of various lithium-ion batteries. The thermochemical process, developed by Accurec, converts the critical raw materials into a readily separable form and extracts them with minimal energy and resource consumption.
Sojka, says:
With our CLIMA process (Critical Raw Materials Recovery from Li-Battery Waste Management), we achieve high yields and quality levels of over 99 percent.
”This allows urgently needed raw materials to remain in Europe and enhance our resource resilience,”
EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall adds:
Recycling lithium batteries is crucial to meeting Europe’s needs in clean energy, digital transformation, sustainable transport, defense, and other sectors.
”The Accurec lithium battery recycling plant is at the forefront of this work.”
Accurec has already developed several innovative processes for all common battery systems (nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal hydride, and lithium-ion). What makes this unique is that Accurec develops, builds, and operates its recycling plants entirely in-house with a highly qualified team of its own engineers. This makes the company a pioneer in all processes related to energy efficiency, competitiveness, and environmental protection, setting standards for future-oriented technology along the entire battery value chain.
Another component of the new lithium recovery plant was developed in a research project (EarLi*) together with Evonik. The aim is to further increase the lithium yield.
Ralph Marquardt, Chief Innovation Officer of Evonik, says:
Researchers worldwide are searching for processes that can recover the valuable battery raw material lithium in high quality and efficiently,
“Evonik wants to contribute to a solution that advances e-mobility with the lowest possible environmental impact. The lithium dissolved in the wastewater is electrochemically separated using a highly selective ceramic membrane and isolated as high-purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate. Evonik has been working for several years on the development of lithium-ion-selective ceramic ion conductors and their application as separation membranes in an electrochemical process. The use of this innovative process combination should enable cost- and energy-efficient isolation of high-purity lithium hydroxide, thus closing the lithium cycle in the field of battery applications.”
Looking to the future, Reiner Sojka expressed his confidence on the sidelines of the well-attended event:
We are now working on scaling up the CLIMA process; as soon as we have all the permits, we will get started in order to double the amount of lithium produced as soon as possible.
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