TKI Project "ReLIB" on Lithium Recycling Awarded to Xiaohua Li

We are pleased to announce that our colleague Xiaohua Li has been awarded a one-year TKI project titled "Recycling of Lithium from Waste to Battery Grade (ReLIB)", in collaboration with the innovative start-up IonIQs. This project is part of the TKI Green Chemistry & Circularity program and has been granted a PPS-i-toeslag 2024 of €124,931.

The ReLIB project focuses on one of the key challenges in the transition to a sustainable and circular economy: the recycling of lithium from industrial waste streams. As the demand for lithium-ion batteries increases, driven by electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, the efficient recovery of high-purity lithium becomes ever more critical. Waste streams containing lithium are often contaminated with other ions such as sodium, calcium, and magnesium. The ReLIB project aims to optimize a novel process developed by IonIQs to remove these impurities cost-effectively, enabling the production of battery-grade lithium carbonate with a purity greater than 99.5 wt%.

This collaboration exemplifies our institute's commitment to impactful research and innovation in sustainable technologies. We congratulate Xiaohua look forward to the outcomes of this promising project.