01-02-2022
The RELiEF project (Recycling of lithium secondary raw materials and others) won an European Commission founding within the scope of the Cluster 5 call of the Horizon Europe Program (Climate, Energy and Mobility).
The project counts with the participation of the NOVA School of Science and Technology, coordinated by Alexandra Ribeiro, professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and researcher at CENSE. The scientist leads the Work Package (WP) 4 and collaborates on WP 1, 5, 7, 8 and 9.
Current recycling technology is focused on recovering lithium from battery scrap, while hardly much focus and technological development is going towards other lithium sources. Hence, the aim is to recover lithium from potential secondary sources, to reduce unrecovered lithium from its waste generation, estimated to be approx. 27.33% of the current global lithium production. RELiEF proposes an integrated recycling facility for lithium from secondary raw materials with continuous processing to produce battery materials . The expected results will contribute to decrease the EU's dependency on imported battery chemicals and raw materials. RELiEF will greatly strengthen EU’s competitiveness in the battery storage value chain.
The consortium is composed of 12 partners, from eight different countries, with the colaboration of small and medium-sized enterprises, universities and industries.
In the call, 38 R&D projects with national participation were present, of which nine were selected for funding, which represents a success rate of 24% when compared to European average. In total, the projects will receive 5.7 million euros of European funding, according to a statement from the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education.
