Battery Materials From European Primary And Secondary Sources: Fraunhofer ISE Joins Major European Project

The European Union aims to reduce its dependence on raw material imports while securing the supply of materials needed for the energy transition. This is where the newly launched European project “M-BAT” comes in: It will develop chemical processes for recovering lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and graphite and carry out pilot projects in Spain, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Fraunhofer ISE is contributing its expertise in the field of direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines to the project.

Raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and graphite are essential for the production of batteries used in electric vehicles, electronic devices, and energy storage systems. The M-BAT consortium plans to demonstrate four technological processes designed for sustainability and cost-efficiency and to support them through to testing in a pre-industrial environment (TRL 6/7). Various raw material sources, including mining waste, industrial sludge, the so-called “black mass” from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, and mineral-rich geothermal water, will be processed using new methods as part of the project. The end products will be validated in collaboration with industry users by integrating them into NMC811 cathodes and anodes to ensure their industrial suitability.

The technologies are being tested in pilot plants in Spain, Poland, and the United Kingdom, bringing the research closer to real-world operating conditions and accelerating its industrial deployment.

As part of the project, the Fraunhofer ISE research team will install a demonstrator at a geothermal power plant operated by Cornish Lithium PLC in the UK. The demonstrator operates across the entire value chain, from selective lithium extraction to lithium carbonate (Li_₂CO_₃) precipitation— all at a quality suitable for battery production. The researchers will apply a new direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, the core of which is an electrochemical ion pump system. “This process enables the separation of lithium from complex geothermal brines without the need for energy-intensive precipitation steps,” says Dr. Joachim Koschikowski, project manager at Fraunhofer ISE.

M-BAT (Recovery of battery-grade materials from primary and secondary sources using innovative technologies) is funded by the European Union’s “Horizon Europe” program.