Eco-friendly recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries

EcoLIB is a collaborative multidiscipline project, funded by Interreg Aurora programme, aiming to develop an innovative sustainable, cost effective, and eco-friendly solution for spent Li-ion batteries (LIBs) recycling.

EcoLIB’s main objective is to overcome the common deficiencies in today’s recycling technologies, i.e., inefficient separation of valuable metals, high costs of multiple recycling steps, and hazardous effect of fluorine accumulation and emission during recycling.

The key idea of EcoLIB is to develop an innovative and cost-efficient thermal pretreatment method to improve the recovery of valuable components from spent lithium-ion batteries. This pre-treatment step facilitates efficient separation of valuable cathode metals, graphite and recovery of the electrolyte, binder and other volatile matter.

Finally, EcoLIB will investigate the production of a new cell prototype from solely recycled materials including electrolyte.

Lead Partner EU
University of Oulu

Project Partners
Luleå University of Technology
Akkuser Oy
Tracegrow Oy

Associate partners
Northvolt Ett AB

The EcoLIB project contributes to the Sustainable development Goals.