Registration/Morning Reception

Chair’s Opening Remarks: Building a Resilient and Circular Battery Ecosystem

Senior Industry Leader / EU Policy Official

EV Battery Recycling in Europe: Market Dynamics, Capacity Outlook & Competitive Landscape

A comprehensive overview of installed and planned recycling capacity across the region, breaking down trends in feedstock availability, technology adoption, and market positioning.

Gain data-driven insight into the volumes of manufacturing scrap vs. end-of-life batteries, the shifting economics of recycled materials, and how policy and regulation are influencing investment, innovation, and strategic partnerships.

• Map the current and future capacity of recycling facilities across Europe.
  

• Compare feedstock streams: process scrap from gigafactories vs. retired batteries from EVs.
  

• Evaluate the economic and technical trade-offs of mechanical, pyro-, and hydrometallurgical processes.
  

• Understand how EU regulations are driving investment and shaping the recycling business model.
  

• Gain insight into the competitive landscape—key players, partnerships, and technology positioning.
  

• Analyze revenue models, material pricing trends, and where investor interest is flowing.

Scaling for Impact: From Pilot Lines to Industrial-Scale EV Battery Recycling by 2030

As battery retirement rates surge, Europe’s recycling infrastructure faces an inflection point. Most current facilities remain pilot-scale or semi-industrial, unable to process the expected flood of end-of-life batteries projected for the 2030s. Explores how industry leaders are bridging the gap between today’s limited capacity and tomorrow’s volume demands through process optimization, modular plant design, and data-driven planning.

How to scale up safely, economically, and sustainably—without compromising recovery rates or regulatory compliance.

Discussion Points:

• How to design recycling plants that can scale modularly without full redesign.
  

• Understand how simulation, data analytics, and battery lifecycle forecasting drive capacity planning.
  

• Explore industrial partnerships between OEMs, recyclers, and infrastructure providers to finance and accelerate expansion.
  

• Examine how automation and flexible process lines can future-proof facilities for evolving chemistries.
  

• Review case studies from Europe’s most advanced battery recycling scale-up projects.

Competing with Scale, Collaborating with Strategy: Lessons from China’s Battery Recycling Leadership

Robert Burrell, PhD, Research Manager, Project Blue

China boasts unmatched capacity, advanced hydrometallurgical processes, and seamless vertical integration from raw materials to cathode production. For Europe to remain competitive and secure its own circular battery ecosystem, it must strike a balance between building local scale and selectively collaborating with Chinese players.

This session explores how European OEMs, recyclers, and material suppliers can learn from China’s industrial model while preserving strategic autonomy. Topics include technology benchmarking, licensing vs proprietary IP, supply chain integration, and how Europe can shape a regulatory and investment environment that supports domestic innovation and global competitiveness.

• Benchmark China’s recycling technologies against emerging European processes in hydrometallurgy and direct recycling.
  

• Understand how China scaled capacity and throughput efficiently—and how Europe can avoid underutilization.
  

• Explore strategic options: Should Europe license mature Chinese tech or develop its own IP base?
  

• Identify opportunities for joint ventures, feedstock supply agreements, and collaboration on circular value chains.
  

• Assess how China’s state-backed investment strategies and export controls affect Europe’s battery ambitions.
  

• Learn how European recyclers can differentiate through ESG, traceability, and compliance with the EU Battery Regulation.

Design for Disassembly: Engineering Batteries for a Circular Future

The gap between battery performance optimization and end-of-life recyclability is a major barrier to circularity. Current cell-to-pack and structural battery designs, while advantageous for weight and range, complicate safe and cost-effective disassembly, material separation, and recycling. This session addresses how OEMs, battery designers, and recyclers can rethink battery architecture for easier end-of-life processing—without compromising performance.

Actionable design-for-disassembly strategies, including reversible adhesives, standardized fasteners, modular packs, and material labeling—all while maintaining structural integrity and thermal performance.

• Examine how battery architecture affects recyclability and total lifecycle cost.
  

• Discover new technologies enabling non-destructive pack opening and component separation.
  

• Learn how modular design, labeling systems, and common interface standards can accelerate disassembly.
  

• Understand the role of early collaboration between OEMs, battery designers, and recyclers in design specification.
  

• Explore best practices for balancing energy density, safety, and circularity in next-gen pack design.

Closing the Loop: Solving the Collection & Take-Back Challenge for End-of-Life EV Batteries

Despite rising volumes of EV batteries reaching end-of-life, Europe’s collection and take-back systems remain fragmented,and underprepared. Limited coordination between OEMs, dealerships, dismantlers, and recyclers leads to inefficiencies, increased safety risks, and high costs—especially when transporting hazardous batteries across borders.

This session presents real-world solutions to streamline battery collection, enhance traceability, and reduce logistics costs. It highlights successful regional models, OEM-led reverse logistics programs, and digital platforms that connect stakeholders in a more harmonized, efficient recovery network.

• Explore best-in-class reverse logistics models and local take-back networks led by OEMs and recyclers.
  

• Understand how digital platforms and battery passports can improve traceability and coordination across the value chain.
  

• Learn how standardizing packaging, handling protocols, and compliance documentation can reduce cross-border transport delays and costs.
  

• Discover how local and regional battery collection hubs can decentralize risk and enable safer aggregation.
  

• Assess the role of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in mandating and financing efficient collection infrastructure.

Securing the Supply: Building Transparent and Predictable Feedstock Streams for Battery Recycling

A stable, predictable feedstock supply is critical for scaling battery recycling operations—but today’s ecosystem is plagued by inconsistent availability, unclear battery ownership, and limited end-of-life traceability. Without reliable access to retired batteries, recyclers face operational and financial uncertainty.

Explore concrete solutions for improving feedstock transparency and availability, from digital battery passports and ownership tracking to OEM-recycler partnerships and predictive recovery models. Attendees will gain insight into how the sector can shift from reactive to proactive feedstock management and ensure the long-term viability of recycling investments.

• Understand how digital battery passports and embedded ID technologies can enable traceable end-of-life recovery.
  

• Learn how predictive analytics and fleet lifecycle modeling can help forecast feedstock volumes and chemistry mixes.
  

• Explore contractual and regulatory mechanisms to clarify ownership and responsibility for retired batteries.
  

• Review successful OEM-recycler collaboration models for ensuring secure and consistent supply.
  

• Discover how dismantlers and service networks can become reliable feedstock partners with the right incentives.

Direct Recycling: Bridging the Gap Between Innovation and Industrial Application

Direct recycling holds immense promise for preserving the structure and value of cathode materials, offering a lower-energy, lower-emission alternative to traditional pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes. Yet despite its potential, direct recycling remains largely confined to lab-scale projects due to unresolved technical challenges—including the ability to recover active materials without degrading performance or purity.

This session presents solutions that are pushing direct recycling toward commercial readiness. Topics include real-world pilot demonstrations, cathode relithiation advancements, automation for gentle material separation, and industrialization pathways.

• Explore recent breakthroughs in retaining cathode morphology and chemistry fidelity during recycling.
  

• Understand the engineering requirements for scaling direct recycling from pilot to industrial plants.
  

• Review techniques for in-line quality control and post-processing (e.g., relithiation, purification).
  

• Learn how automation, robotics, and solvent-free processes can improve efficiency and scalability.
  

• Examine OEM-recycler collaborations accelerating the transition from R&D to commercialization.

Morning Networking Break

Digital Transparency in Action: Unlocking the Value of Battery Passports and Traceability Platforms

Johannes Simboeck, Division Manager, acatech

Veronika Karpiel, Product Owner Battery Passport, Siemens

Kathrin Adam, Sustainable Supply Chain Consulting, EY

Simon Ziegler, Doctoral Researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC

As regulatory pressure and customer demand for transparency grow, digital battery passports and traceability systems are emerging as critical tools for unlocking circularity, ESG compliance, and material recovery efficiency. These systems enable end-to-end visibility across the battery lifecycle—from raw material sourcing to second-life deployment and recycling.

This panel brings together technology providers, policy advisors, and industrial users to explore how digital traceability can deliver real-world value. Speakers will address implementation challenges, data governance, interoperability across platforms, and how digital tools are reshaping stakeholder collaboration in the battery ecosystem.

• Learn how battery passports can support regulatory compliance, particularly under the EU Battery Regulation.
  

• Understand the role of blockchain and secure data platforms in ensuring trust, traceability, and auditability.
  

• Explore how real-time lifecycle data can optimize recycling, reuse, and carbon accounting processes.
  

• Gain insight into data standardization, platform interoperability, and how to align supply chain actors.
  

• Hear firsthand how industry leaders are navigating implementation challenges and scaling pilot programs.

Adapting to Complexity: Solutions for Sorting and Pre-Treatment Across Diverse Battery Chemistries and Architectures

The rapid evolution of EV battery formats and chemistries—ranging from cylindrical and prismatic to pouch cells, and from LFP to high-nickel NMC and emerging solid-state technologies—creates significant challenges in automated identification, safe handling, and material recovery. This heterogeneity complicates sorting, pre-treatment, and downstream recycling efficiency, particularly when legacy and next-gen chemistries converge in waste streams.

This session presents cutting-edge approaches for managing this diversity in real-world operations. From AI-powered battery recognition systems and robotics-enabled dismantling, to smart separation techniques and chemistry-specific processing lines, speakers will share how they are overcoming format fragmentation and future-proofing recycling infrastructure.

• Learn how AI and machine vision are being used to identify battery types and chemistries in mixed waste streams.
  

• Explore modular and flexible pre-treatment lines that adapt to evolving formats and materials.
  

• Understand how advanced sorting algorithms and automated dismantling technologies reduce contamination and improve throughput.
  

• Discover strategies to integrate chemistry-specific handling protocols into high-volume operations.
  

• Gain insight into future challenges posed by solid-state batteries and next-gen architectures—and how to prepare for them today.

Smarter Recycling: Harnessing Data Analytics to Optimize Battery Recovery and Process Efficiency

As the complexity and volume of end-of-life EV batteries increase, data-driven decision-making is becoming essential to improving efficiency, safety, and material recovery in recycling operations. From real-time diagnostics and material forecasting to predictive maintenance and yield optimization, advanced analytics and digital tools are transforming how recyclers operate.

How recyclers and technology providers are integrating data platforms, digital twins, and AI into the battery recycling value chain. Attendees will learn how analytics are being used to monitor process performance, assess feedstock variability, and inform investment, design, and operational decisions.

• Learn how real-time data from sorting and pre-treatment stages can inform yield optimization and material recovery strategies.
  

• Discover how digital twins and simulation tools are being used to model plant operations and scale-up scenarios.
  

• Understand how predictive analytics help forecast feedstock volumes, battery chemistries, and operational risks.
  

• Explore AI-driven quality control systems for assessing recovered material purity and tracking process deviations.
  

• Gain insights into cross-industry collaboration for data standardization and battery traceability.

Predicting the Curve: Using AI to Forecast Battery Lifecycles and Future Recycling Volumes

Accurate forecasting of end-of-life battery volumes is critical for recycling capacity planning, investment strategies, and circular value chain optimization. Yet battery lifespan is highly variable—shaped by factors such as chemistry, usage patterns, climate, and vehicle application. Emerging AI and machine learning tools are now enabling recyclers, OEMs, and policymakers to model battery degradation, failure rates, and geographic return flows with increasing precision.

Practical examples of how predictive modeling is being applied to anticipate recycling loads, optimize collection strategies, and inform infrastructure development. From EV fleet data analysis to real-world degradation modeling, speakers will demonstrate how AI is helping build smarter, more resilient recycling systems.

• Learn how AI models are being trained on real-world battery usage and aging data to forecast retirement timelines.
  

• Understand how predictive analytics support capacity planning for recycling plants and collection logistics.
  

• Explore integration of battery telematics and vehicle lifecycle data to anticipate chemistry mix and regional volumes.
  

• Discover applications of digital twins and machine learning in modeling material flows and facility throughput.
  

• Review the role of OEM-recycler data sharing and cloud platforms in scaling predictive capability.

Intelligent Sorting: Leveraging AI for Automated Battery Identification and Separation

Dr. Andreas Letsch, Director Center of Competence Factory Automation Battery, Bosch Rexroth

With the growing diversity of EV battery formats and chemistries entering the recycling stream, manual sorting has become a bottleneck—leading to inefficiencies, safety risks, and contamination. Advanced AI-powered sorting systems now offer a scalable solution, enabling automated identification, classification, and separation of batteries based on format, chemistry, state-of-health, and manufacturer.

Explore the deployment of machine vision, robotics, and sensor fusion technologies to optimize pre-treatment and improve material recovery outcomes. This session will showcase how real-world facilities are integrating these systems into their operations to increase throughput, reduce labor dependency, and safely process mixed battery waste.

• Learn how computer vision and machine learning algorithms are being trained to recognize battery types, sizes, and labels in real time.
  

• Explore how AI is integrated with robotics and conveyor systems for fully automated sorting and feeding.
  

• Understand the role of spectroscopy, X-ray, and thermal imaging in chemistry-specific identification.
  

• Discover how automated systems improve safety by detecting damaged, swollen, or hazardous battery units.
  

• Review examples of scalable deployments and modular AI solutions being adopted by leading recyclers.

Safe from Start to Shred: Mitigating Fire and Thermal Runaway Risks in Battery Transport and Processing

The risk of fire, thermal runaway, and hazardous incidents during the collection, storage, and processing of end-of-life EV batteries remains one of the most pressing safety challenges for the recycling industry. With limited visibility into the state-of-health of retired batteries, recyclers often operate with uncertainty—raising operational risks and insurance costs.

Proactively manage and mitigate safety risks across the entire battery recovery chain. From advanced diagnostic tools and fire-resistant packaging to thermal detection, inerting systems, and improved safety protocols, how to safely handle batteries from pickup to processing.

• Discover diagnostic technologies for rapid state-of-health assessment and hazard classification of incoming batteries.
  

• Learn about new standards and certifications for safe battery packaging, storage, and transport.
  

• Explore fire detection and suppression innovations within shredding and disassembly facilities.
  

• Understand how AI and IoT can be used to monitor temperature and voltage anomalies in real-time.
  

• Review regulatory guidance and best practices for safe handling of lithium-ion batteries in transit and on-site.

Breaking the Cost Barrier: Strategies to Improve Profitability and Competitiveness in Battery Recycling

EV battery recycling faces a significant economic hurdle: high operational costs for pre-treatment, logistics, and labor-intensive disassembly, combined with volatile and often lower pricing for recovered materials—especially when competing against low-cost virgin materials from China. For recycling to scale sustainably, the economics must improve across the value chain.

This session explores practical strategies to reduce costs, unlock higher-margin material recovery, and increase financial viability. Topics include automation to reduce labor costs, modular plant designs to reduce CAPEX, offtake agreements to stabilize material pricing, and policy tools to create a level playing field for recycled content.

• Discover how automation and modularity are lowering operational and capital costs in new recycling facilities.
  

• Learn how long-term supply contracts and offtake agreements can stabilize revenue streams.
  

• Explore approaches to maximize the value of recovered materials through quality control and post-processing.
  

• Understand how European policy and procurement strategies can incentivize the use of recycled content over cheaper imports.

• Review successful business models that combine second-life repurposing with recycling for value optimization.

Networking Lunch Break

OEM-Led Circularity: Building Closed-Loop Battery Recycling for Cost and Supply Security

Major automakers are no longer relying solely on third-party recyclers—instead, they are internalizing circular economy strategies to take control of battery material flows. Companies like Volkswagen, Renault, and Stellantis are investing in in-house recycling capabilities or forming strategic partnerships to develop closed-loop systems that ensure long-term access to critical raw materials while reducing environmental impact and cost volatility.

This session highlights how leading OEMs are designing vertically integrated recycling models, embedding circularity into battery design, and working with recyclers to build dedicated recovery pathways. Attendees will gain actionable insights into how circular strategies enhance supply chain resilience, regulatory compliance, and ESG performance.

• Explore how OEMs are integrating recycling infrastructure directly into their production and battery value chains.
  

• Learn how closed-loop systems can reduce raw material costs, logistics emissions, and reliance on foreign-sourced virgin materials.
  

• Understand how OEM-recycler partnerships are structured to balance risk, cost, and innovation.
  

• Discover how circularity is being embedded in battery design to enable future recovery and reuse.
  

• Review real-world case studies of OEM-led recycling hubs, pilot plants, and digital traceability platforms.

Automation in Action: Scaling Battery Recycling with Robotics and AI-Driven Diagnostics

Dr. Dominik Budday, Product Owner, Battery Solutions – Adaptive Recycling, Siemens

Labor-intensive disassembly and manual sorting remain key cost and safety bottlenecks in EV battery recycling. However, recent advances in robotics and AI-driven diagnostics are enabling a new generation of automation solutions—from robotic arms that safely dismantle packs and modules, to intelligent systems that evaluate battery state-of-health and chemistry in real time.

This session demonstrates how automation is transforming the economics, throughput, and safety of battery recycling operations. Industry pioneers will showcase how robotic systems and AI platforms are being deployed in pilot and industrial-scale facilities, reducing labor dependency and improving recovery outcomes.

• Learn how robotics is enabling fast, safe, and repeatable disassembly of complex battery packs and cell formats.
  

• Explore AI-powered diagnostic tools that assess remaining capacity, chemistry, and safety risks pre-disassembly.
  

• Understand how automation improves plant efficiency, material yield, and workplace safety.
  

• Review integration challenges and cost-benefit models for deploying robotics in recycling environments.
  

• Discover emerging use cases, from smart screw removal and module separation to AI-guided sorting and triage

Beyond the Road: Unlocking the Value of Second-Life Batteries in Stationary Energy Storage

Not all EV batteries that reach the end of their vehicle life are ready for recycling. Many still retain substantial capacity and can serve a second, valuable purpose in stationary energy storage systems—ranging from grid stabilization to commercial and residential backup power. Extending battery life through reuse supports circularity, reduces raw material demand, and improves profitability across the battery value chain.

This session presents the technologies, business models, and testing frameworks enabling second-life applications at scale. Our speaker will share how they’re grading, repurposing, and integrating used EV batteries into stationary systems while ensuring performance, safety, and economic viability.

• Learn how automated diagnostic tools assess remaining battery health for second-life suitability.
  

• Explore successful business models for deploying second-life batteries in energy storage, microgrids, and off-grid systems.
  

• Understand the testing, certification, and performance monitoring requirements for second-life deployment.
  

• Discover how second-life use improves the overall ROI of EV battery ecosystems and defers recycling costs.
  

• Review partnerships between OEMs, utilities, and reuse platforms that are building circular ecosystems.

Decoding Cell Chemistry: Recycling Strategies for LFP, NMC, and Emerging Battery Chemistries

Arnd Böhler, Manager, Center of Competence (CoC) Recycling, Daimler Truck AG
Sarah Fleischer, CEO & Co-Founder, tozero GmbH

As EV battery chemistries diversify, recyclers face increasing complexity in material recovery, processing economics, and supply chain risk. Analyse practical, chemistry-specific strategies to handle Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP), Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC), an  other emerging cell types at end-of-life.

Address how differing cathode compositions impact recycling methods and yields, how to overcome the low-value challenge of LFP, and how to adapt processes for recovering high-value materials like nickel and cobalt. It will also examine solutions for recycling difficult core materials such as graphite and discuss how Europe can build material independence by reducing reliance on critical mineral imports from China.

• Understand the recycling implications of LFP vs. NMC batteries, including differences in material value, recovery challenges, and processing approaches.
  

• Explore chemistry-adapted recycling workflows to increase yield and efficiency across diverse feedstocks.
  

• Discuss solutions for recovering low-value or hard-to-recycle materials like graphite at commercial scale.
  

• Learn how Europe can strengthen its raw material sovereignty through localized recovery, substitution strategies, and closed-loop partnerships.
  

• Review how recyclers are adapting to future chemistries and evolving battery architectures.

Turning Regulation into Action: Solutions for Complying with EU Waste Battery Collection and Recycling Policy

Dr. Tom Vöge, Director of Public Policy, GRS Service

The EU’s evolving battery regulation framework is setting a new global standard—introducing ambitious targets for collection, recycling efficiency, and minimum recycled content. While these policies support climate goals and circularity, they also present significant operational and compliance challenges for OEMs, recyclers, and take-back scheme operators.

Practical strategies and scalable solutions to navigate and comply with the new regulatory landscape. From adapting extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes and scaling digital traceability to implementing EU-wide take-back systems, attendees will gain actionable insight into how to turn policy obligations into competitive advantage.

• Understand the core requirements of the EU Battery Regulation and upcoming secondary legislation.
  

• Explore how extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes are evolving to meet collection and recycling targets.
  

• Learn how the RENEOS partnership enables coordinated EU-wide battery take-back for EVs.
  

• Discover the role of digital tools, including the Battery Passport and Digital Product Passport (DPP), in regulatory compliance and traceability.
  

• Identify proactive strategies for aligning business operations with climate policy, competitiveness, and supply chain resilience.

Networking Break

Green Hydrometallurgy: Low-Impact, High-Purity Recovery of Critical Battery Materials

Hydrometallurgy has emerged as an alternative to pyrometallurgical recycling—but recent advancements are pushing it even further. Green hydrometallurgy applies low-temperature leaching and closed-loop chemical separation using non-toxic solvents, enabling the recovery of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese at battery-grade purity with minimal environmental impact.

This session investigates the latest innovations in green hydrometallurgical processing—from replacing sulfuric acid with greener alternatives to recovering reagents in a closed loop. Attendees will gain insight into how these processes are being scaled commercially and how they fit into a sustainable, circular battery economy.

• Understand how green hydrometallurgical processes differ from traditional leaching and smelting methods.
  

• Explore low-temperature, low-emission leaching techniques and solvent systems that eliminate hazardous chemicals.
  

• Learn how closed-loop reagent recovery reduces chemical use and wastewater generation.
  

• Evaluate the quality of recovered materials and their direct reuse in cathode production.
  

• Gain insight into commercial-scale deployments and integration with upstream and downstream recycling systems.
  

• Discover how green hydro processes support regulatory compliance, EU Battery Regulation targets, and ESG reporting.

Solving the Waste Management Puzzle: Practical Solutions for Handling EV Battery Recycling Residues

Philipp Brunotte, Co-Founder, LiBCycle GmbH

As EV battery recycling scales up, so too does the volume of complex waste streams—ranging from hazardous by-products to non-recoverable materials. Improper handling of these waste outputs poses serious environmental, regulatory, and safety risks. Addresses the most pressing waste management challenges recyclers face and analyse real-world solutions to improve compliance, sustainability, and operational safety.

From segregating hazardous waste and managing black mass residues, to leveraging automation for safe handling and developing circular use cases for non-critical materials, attendees will gain a toolkit for transforming waste management from a liability into a value-generating process.

• Identify and categorize the main waste streams in EV battery recycling, including hazardous, electronic, and residual materials.
  

• Understand the environmental, health, and economic risks of improper waste handling and disposal.
  

• Explore advanced strategies for waste segregation, treatment, and recovery—including mechanical, thermal, and chemical methods.
  

• Learn how automation and AI can enhance safety, tracking, and compliance in waste processing.
  

• Discover best practices for worker training, facility protocols, and safe storage.
  

• Navigate regulatory frameworks at the EU and national level—and gain insights into building compliant, future-proof waste management systems.
  

• Review innovative approaches to repurposing residual battery materials, reducing landfill dependency and creating new circular opportunities.

Hybrid Recovery Systems: Combining Pyrometallurgy and Hydrometallurgy for High-Efficiency Material Extraction

Process Development Lead, Umicore / Fortum / Eramet / BASF

While pyrometallurgy offers scalability and robustness, it falls short in recovering lighter and more volatile elements such as lithium and manganese. To overcome these limitations, leading recyclers are now deploying hybrid pyro-hydro systems, where pyrometallurgy acts as a high-throughput pre-treatment step, followed by hydrometallurgical refinement of metal-rich slags into battery-grade materials.

This session explores how integrating both approaches enhances metal recovery efficiency, enables closed-loop circularity, and reduces overall waste. Attendees will gain insight into process design, material flows, and real-world implementation of this hybrid model—balancing throughput with purity and sustainability.

• Understand how hybrid systems work: pyrometallurgy for safe, bulk processing and hydrometallurgy for precision metal recovery.
  

• Learn how this model enables efficient recovery of lithium, manganese, and other low-volatility elements often lost in pyro-only systems.
  

• Explore system integration challenges and how operators manage slag chemistry, energy use, and yield optimization.
  

• Review case studies of commercial-scale implementations, including Umicore’s integrated refining process.
  

• Gain insight into the environmental and economic benefits of combining pyro and hydro—including reduced chemical use and improved material circularity.

Scaling Smart: Modular, Decentralized Battery Recycling for Regional Circularity

Green Li-ion, Cylib, or Redux Recycling

Large centralized recycling facilities often face high transport costs, regulatory delays, and logistical complexity—especially as EV battery volumes surge and chemistries diversify. Modular, decentralized recycling plants offer a flexible, scalable solution by enabling material recovery close to battery take-back, gigafactories, or OEM service hubs.

The technological design, integration, and real-world deployment of small-footprint recycling units that bring processing closer to the source. Attendees will gain insights into how modular systems lower costs, reduce emissions, and support localized closed-loop supply chains.

• Learn how modular recycling units operate—from mechanical separation to chemical pre-processing.
  

• Understand how decentralization improves responsiveness, reduces transport risk, and simplifies permitting.
  

• Explore strategies for siting near OEM plants, collection centers, and manufacturing scrap hubs.
  

• Discover how modular plants are integrated into broader spoke-and-hub or closed-loop recycling networks.
  

• Review examples of commercial deployments and pilot projects from leading innovators.
  

• Examine economic models, CAPEX/OPEX considerations, and scalability for regional markets.

Unsticking the Problem: Scalable, Safe, and Cost-Effective Solutions for Debonding EV Battery Packs

Bonded components are becoming increasingly difficult to disassemble, creating serious challenges for recycling, remanufacturing, and material recovery. Debonding adhesives, foams, and thermal interface materials requires precision, safety, and scalable methods that do not damage cells or compromise facility operations.

Innovative solutions to the industrial challenge of debonding, covering advanced thermal, mechanical, and chemical separation techniques. It will also address safety protocols, cost models, and how new technologies can be integrated into existing recycling lines to unlock value from tightly bonded battery architectures.

• Learn how advanced bonding methods (e.g. structural adhesives, polyurethane foams) complicate disassembly and recycling.
  

• Explore solutions such as thermal debonding, solvent-based separation, and robotic delamination for safe and selective dismantling.
  

• Understand how precision control prevents damage to adjacent cells and components, improving material recovery yields.
  

• Discover best practices for preventing thermal runaway during the debonding process.
  

• Evaluate the economic viability of different debonding techniques and their scalability for high-throughput operations.
  

• Review how new debonding technologies can be retrofitted into existing recycling or dismantling facilities.
  

• Examine environmental and regulatory considerations in handling adhesives and byproducts.

Analytical Strategies for Safer and More Sustainable Process Water Management in Battery Recycling

Dr. Sascha Nowak, Head of Analytics & Environmental, Electrochemical Energy Technology, University of Münster

Water-assisted recycling techniques—such as wet shredding and electrohydraulic fragmentation—are gaining traction for their safety and efficiency, but they generate significant volumes of contaminated process water. Managing this wastewater safely and sustainably is a growing challenge for recyclers, particularly due to the presence of dissolved electrolytes, heavy metals, and complex organics.

This session focuses on analytical solutions for identifying, monitoring, and treating contaminants in process water to reduce hazardous waste classification, lower treatment costs, and improve environmental compliance. Attendees will gain insight into the role of advanced analytical techniques in optimizing water treatment strategies, ensuring regulatory alignment, and enhancing overall process sustainability.

• Understand the composition and origin of contaminants in process water from wet-based battery recycling.
  

• Explore analytical methods (e.g., ICP-OES, ion chromatography, LC-MS) for monitoring lithium, fluorinated compounds, and heavy metals.
  

• Learn how real-time analysis informs smarter filtration, neutralization, and closed-loop water reuse strategies.
  

• Discover how analytical data can reduce hazardous waste classification and disposal costs.
  

• Review best practices for wastewater treatment system design tailored to lithium-ion battery recycling.
  

• Gain insights into regulatory thresholds and how accurate characterization ensures compliance and permits scaling.

Maximizing Profitability: Operational Strategies to Improve Cost Efficiency in EV Battery Recycling

Julian Englberger, Head of Operations Management, PowerCo SE

Maintaining profitability while meeting regulatory, safety, and sustainability requirements remains a critical challenge. This session focuses on practical strategies for improving cost-efficiency across the value chain—from material handling and labor optimization to supply chain integration and data-driven process improvement.:

• Identify major cost drivers in battery recycling—including labor, logistics, compliance, and energy—and how to manage them effectively.
  

• Explore automation and digitalization solutions that reduce operational costs and improve consistency.
  

• Learn how optimized material recovery processes can maximize value extraction and improve ROI.
  

• Review best practices for supply chain efficiency and continuous improvement using data analytics.
  

• Discover profitable business models that incorporate second-life applications, value-added services, and recovered material markets.
  

• Understand how partnerships, service diversification, and strategic positioning can expand revenue opportunities.
  

• Gain insight into financial planning, budgeting tools, and risk mitigation strategies tailored to recycling operations.

Chairs Closing Remarks

Drinks Party & Currywurst