The Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (ISSP UL), has become part of the new Horizon Europe project CIRCULOOP (High-Throughput Circular Closed-Loop Direct Recycling for Low-Value Battery Chemistries in European Gigafactories). With the support of the BATT4EU partnership, a three-year effort is being launched to develop a direct battery recycling platform.
As Europe rapidly expands battery production capacity in gigafactories, up to 10% of the produced volume can become manufacturing scrap and rejects. Traditional pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical recycling methods consume too much energy and are economically unviable for battery chemistries with low material value, such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP).
CIRCULOOP aims to preserve the structure of the cathode material, recover more than 90% of cathode materials, and restore their electrochemical properties to nearly their original level. The technological framework will combine cold-gas delamination, separation using environmentally friendly solvents, and redox regeneration.
Once integrated into factory workflows, this platform will reduce energy consumption, preserve material value worth tens of millions of euros each year, and strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in raw materials.
The project consortium is coordinated by the Spanish research centre EURECAT and brings together 8 partners from Spain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Latvia.
ISSP UL will provide research support for electrode delamination, solvent-based separation, and cathode material regeneration tasks. The institute also leads two work packages in which, together with partners, it is developing a sustainability assessment for industrial implementation. Under the leadership of Ginta Kučinska, Head of the Laboratory of Energy Materials, the ISSP UL team will develop 10–15 practical design rules for battery manufacturers for direct battery recycling (Design for Direct Recycling – DfDR), fully compliant with the EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542.
