Tozero has inaugurated its first industrial-scale demonstration plant for lithium-ion battery recycling at the Chemiepark Gendorf, marking a key step in scaling up domestic recovery of critical raw materials in Europe.
The facility, located in Upper Bavaria near the Austrian border, is designed to process around 500 tonnes of battery waste annually and recover more than 100 tonnes of high-purity lithium carbonate, alongside graphite and nickel-cobalt compounds.
“In under four years, Tozero has scaled from lab to industry as the first European company,” the company said in a statement announcing the opening.
Founded in 2022, Tozero focuses on processing so-called “black mass”—a material rich in battery-active elements—rather than handling full end-of-life battery dismantling. This step is outsourced to specialised partners, allowing the company to reduce safety risks, lower logistics costs and improve scalability.
The new plant builds on earlier pilot operations in Munich, where Tozero had already produced and delivered initial batches of recycled lithium to European customers in 2024. With the Gendorf facility now operational, production volumes are expected to increase significantly.
The site also serves as a blueprint for a planned full-scale commercial plant with a targeted capacity of 45,000 tonnes of battery waste per year by 2030.
Tozero says its proprietary recycling process can recover more than 80% of lithium from used batteries, aligning with the European Union’s targets for 2031. The company has also expanded its network of partners across ten European countries and supplies recovered materials to industries including construction, ceramics and lubricants.
“Europe doesn’t yet have the critical raw materials it needs to build and scale its own energy transition and battery industry,” said Sarah Fleischer, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tozero. “Our technology, now scaled 25,000 times, changes this by enabling us to recycle end-of-life batteries and extract these materials at industrial scale for the first time.”
She added: “We’re consistently proving that recycling isn’t just a pilot project – it can be delivered at a level capable of giving Europe a homegrown, circular supply of critical materials its future runs on.”
Source: Electrive
