German company “tozero” claims to have successfully tested industrially recycled graphite in a battery cell for the first time in Europe. While other processes have only worked on a laboratory scale, tozero has now succeeded in recovering and recycling the material in industrial quantities.
Quality similar to that of primary graphite
In conventional battery recycling processes, graphite is often lost or incinerated. “tozero” claims it can recover more than 80 percent of the material using an alternative process without destroying its structure. According to the company, test results show that the performance of the recycled graphite is comparable to that of primary graphite.
Production scale-up planned by 2030
“tozero” aims to produce more than 2,000 tons of recycled graphite annually by 2027 and to increase this amount to more than 10,000 tons by 2030. This is in response to the growing demand for raw materials for batteries, especially in the wake of electric mobility. Europe is currently almost entirely dependent on graphite imports, with China controlling the majority of the market.
