Researchers at RWTH Aachen University are working with academic and industry partners to test delamination-based approaches for battery recycling, seeking to improve material recovery while reducing environmental impact and reliance on primary raw materials.
The work is being carried out under the three-year RECLAIM research project, funded by the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia. The project focuses on delamination, a direct recycling process that separates active battery materials from current collector foils without chemically decomposing them, a step that can preserve material value and lower energy use.
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The research is led by the Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University and coordinated by the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell Production FFB. Other partners include the MEET Battery Research Centre at the University of Münster and companies Cylib and No Canary, with Otto Junker Solutions participating as an associated partner.
Within RECLAIM, the partners are evaluating thermal, mechanical and wet-chemical delamination techniques and assessing their suitability for different active materials and binder systems. The concepts will be tested from early demonstrator stages through to pilot-line scale, with the aim of determining whether they can be industrialised.
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“The RECLAIM project will evaluate technical, economic, and ecological criteria to determine under which circumstances and for which materials these processes are suitable for industrial use,” said Timon Elliger, project manager at PEM.
Unlike conventional recycling routes that rely on energy-intensive chemical processing, direct recycling via delamination seeks to recover intact active materials from end-of-life batteries and production scrap. Researchers say this could significantly reduce future demand for primary resources used in battery manufacturing.
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“Recycling promotes the establishment of a European value chain that reduces Europe’s dependence on imported and often critical raw materials and increases resource efficiency,” said Achim Kampker, head of PEM. He added that advancing direct recycling methods is essential to enabling efficient material recovery and large-scale industrial application in battery cell production.