I've mentioned that for years I thought a couple European companies would be major players in the western world but instead it's the business started by a Tesla co-founder that leads the way. Here's one of many mentions, this one's from 2023 when President Biden was splashin' 'Inflation Reduction Act' cash around:
Battery Recycling: "Redwood Materials says it wins $2 bln DOE loan for EV materials plant"
Umicore, Johnson Matthey, Veolia and the rest have to be wondering why they didn't set up arms-length American subs to garner some of that sweet, sweet Biden love....
Redwood eventually turned down the two billion because a) they didn't actually need the cash, the business was delivering above plan, and b) there were too many strings attached versus raising money in the market.
And the headline story from Tech.eu, March 27:
As demand for lithium and graphite surges, tozero is building a battery recycling playbook for Europe — and aiming to compete with mining on cost.
Europe is racing to secure the critical raw materials needed for its energy transition, yet remains heavily dependent on imports — particularly from China.
At the same time, a growing volume of end-of-life batteries is creating a domestic source of lithium, graphite, and other materials that has, until now, been difficult to recover at scale. Battery recycling startup tozero has launched its first industrial demonstration plant in Germany, marking a step toward turning end-of-life batteries into a domestic supply of critical raw materials at scale.
The plant will deliver recycled lithium and graphite to companies across sectors, including construction, ceramics, and lubricants, with further materials and industries to follow.
Located in Bavaria at Chemical Park Gendorf, the plant can process more than 1.500t of battery waste every year. From this waste, tozero can produce high-purity lithium carbonate – the equivalent of saving 6,000 electric vehicles' worth of batteries from landfill – and recover graphite and nickel-cobalt mix.
Founded in 2022 by Sarah Fleischer, a serial entrepreneur and mechanical engineer, and Dr Ksenija Milicevic Neumann, a leading metallurgy expert, tozero has scaled at pace.
In April 2024, nine months after opening its pilot facility, it became the first company in Europe to deliver recycled lithium to commercial customers.
I spoke to Sarah Fleischer, Co-founder and CEO of tozero, to learn more about how the company is not only scaling its own operations, but effectively creating a playbook for an emerging industry.
Europe’s critical materials paradox: reliant on imports, rich in waste
Global demand for lithium is set to quadruple by 2030, while in the EU alone, graphite demand is expected to rise by up to 25 times by 2040, driven by EVs, grid-scale storage and industrial electrification.Yet Europe remains almost entirely reliant on imports – China controls global graphite supplies, and 99 per cent of Europe's lithium comes from abroad. Ironically, Europe is sitting on a stockpile of the very materials it's scrambling to source from the growing number of end-of-life batteries, largely due to Europe’s growth in EVs
With demand expected to exceed supply by over 33 per cent from 2035, battery recycling is becoming essential — and tozero is aiming to help bridge the gap.
“Yes, it works”: how tozero validated its recycling tech with OEMs
tozero’s approach to battery recycling is fundamentally different from conventional methods. By deploying a proprietary acid-free, hydrometallurgy process, it focuses on low-temperature, water-based chemical processing rather than burning batteries.Building on this, the company aims to close the battery materials loop and support Europe’s ambition to achieve greater independence in critical raw materials. This aligns with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, which calls for 25 per cent of supply to come from recycling sources.
tozero's recycling takes place in a single cycle, and the recovered materials are pure enough to feed directly back into manufacturing....
....MUCH MORE
We'll keep tabs on tozero but like scaling up laboratory advances in battery chemistry itself, recycling is "a damn hard thing to do".
In the mean time here is one of 2025's most popular posts:
Battery Recycling: Best-in-Class Redwood Materials
