Europe has taken a step towards breaking its dependence on imported battery materials,with the first industrial-scale demonstration plant capable of recycling lithium,graphite and nickel-cobalt from end-of-life batteries.

Munich-based tozero,has brought the facility online at Chemical Park Gendorf in Bavaria,building it in just six months and giving it the capacity to process around 1,500 tonnes of battery waste a year.

The company says it can recover around 80%of critical raw materials,producing battery-grade lithium carbonate alongside graphite and nickel-cobalt mix that can go straight back into manufacturing.

Europe is sitting on a growing stockpile of spent batteries but has lacked the ability to extract those materials at scale,leaving it heavily reliant on imports,particularly from China.

This plant is designed to change that by turning waste into a domestic supply stream.

Sarah Fleischer,Co-founder and CEO of tozero,said:“Europe doesn’t yet have the critical raw materials it needs to build and scale its own energy transition and battery industry.Our technology,now scaled 10,000 times,changes this by enabling us to recycle end-of-life batteries and extract these materials at industrial scale for the first time.”

The demonstration site will now act as the blueprint for a full commercial facility by 2030 capable of processing tens of thousands of tonnes annually.

With lithium demand expected to quadruple by the end of the decade and graphite demand in Europe set to surge,the race is on to secure supply.