BATT- BRIDGE webinar | Sustainability in Focus: Batt-Bridge Projects – Assessing recycling processes for a circular battery value chain

More than 50 stakeholders from academia, industry, and research organisations joined the latest BATT-BRIDGE webinar to discuss innovative approaches for assessing and validating sustainable battery recycling pathways.  

On 9 July 2026, experts from six Horizon Europe projects came together for the latest BATT-BRIDGE webinar, “Sustainability in Focus: Batt-Bridge Projects – Assessing Recycling Processes for a Circular Battery Value Chain”, organised by RENOVATE and moderated by LOMARTOV, the project’s D&C leaders, and held in collaboration with experts from the sister projects: CIRCUBATT, HighMag, Revitalise, ReUse, and STREAMS. 

The event highlighted the latest developments in sustainability assessment methodologies for battery recycling and explored how innovative technologies can support a more circular and resilient European battery value chain.

The webinar forms part of the broader BATT-BRIDGE initiative, a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) building on the work of BATTERY 2030+ and Batteries Europe. The initiative aims to strengthen Europe’s battery research and innovation ecosystem by fostering collaboration among research projects, industry stakeholders and policymakers working towards sustainable battery solutions.

COMPLETE PRESENTATION HERE

Strong international interest in sustainable battery recycling

The webinar attracted 52 participants in total, demonstrating the growing interest in battery sustainability, circularity and recycling innovation across Europe and beyond, representing a broad range of sectors: 

  • Universities and academic institutions
  • R&I organisations
  • European and national public bodies
  • Battery manufacturers and industrial stakeholders
  • Recycling and circular economy organisations
  • Consultancy and innovation support organisations
  • Transport and mobility sector representatives
  • NGOs and sustainability experts

This diverse audience reflects the increasing importance of sustainable battery recycling for the entire battery ecosystem, from research laboratories and technology developers to policymakers and industrial decision-makers.

Two sessions focused on advancing battery sustainability

The webinar was structured around two complementary sessions that addressed both the assessment and validation of innovative battery recycling technologies.

Session 1: Sustainability assessment approaches for innovative battery recycling

The first session explored the methodologies currently being applied across Horizon Europe projects to evaluate the environmental, economic and social performance of emerging recycling technologies. The speakers presented a range of approaches, including:

  • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for measuring environmental impacts
  • Life Cycle Costing (LCC) to evaluate economic feasibility
  • Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) to assess societal impacts
  • Circularity and critical raw material assessments
  • Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) frameworks

A key message emerging from the discussion was that sustainability cannot be measured through carbon footprint alone. Experts highlighted the need to consider a broader set of indicators, including energy consumption, water use, resource efficiency, toxicity, circularity and social impacts when evaluating innovative battery recycling pathways.

Session 2: Validating sustainability approaches from lab to industry

The second session focused on one of the most important challenges facing the battery sector today: how to validate sustainability claims when technologies are still under development.

Speakers discussed the opportunities and challenges associated with:

  • Scaling sustainability results from laboratory to industrial environments
  • Managing uncertainty and assumptions in sustainability models
  • Improving transparency in assessment methodologies
  • Comparing different recycling routes fairly
  • Harmonising approaches across projects and technologies

The discussion highlighted that validation is not simply about obtaining final sustainability figures. Rather, it plays a critical role in identifying environmental and economic hotspots, improving recycling processes and supporting future industrial deployment.

Key messages from Horizon Europe battery recycling projects

The BATT-BRIDGE community encompasses a wide range of research and innovation topics across the battery sector. This webinar brought together projects specifically focused on developing innovative recycling pathways and improving the sustainability of Europe’s battery value chain.

CIRCUBATT: Linking sustainability with business model innovation

Dr Michael Hess (Battronics) and Dr James Duong (University of Greenwich) presented the work of CIRCUBATT,  showcasing how sustainability assessments can extend beyond recycling technologies to include battery business models.

The project combines environmental, social and economic indicators with considerations such as battery longevity, recyclability, stakeholder value and supply-chain resilience, helping support sustainability-driven decision-making throughout the battery lifecycle.

RENOVATE: Embedding sustainability from the earliest development stages

Pushpendra Chabrawal (KIT–HIU) presented RENOVATE innovative recycling technologies, which aim to recover and reuse more than 95% of end-of-life battery cell components and side streams.

The project applies a SSbD approach alongside environmental, social, economic and safety assessments. Particular emphasis was placed on the importance of reliable data, process scaling and understanding the influence of modelling assumptions on sustainability outcomes.

REVITALISE: Tackling the challenges of multi-chemistry recycling

Violeta Vargas Parra (Eurecat) shared insights from REVITALISE, which addresses recycling pathways for multiple battery chemistries, including Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC), lithium iron phosphate (LFP), and sodium-ion batteries.

The presentation highlighted the complexity of defining appropriate system boundaries and functional units when comparing technologies, as well as the challenges of integrating different recycling routes into a coherent sustainability assessment framework.

ReUse: Advancing direct recycling for LFP batteries

Alok Prasad (University of Bordeaux) introduced ReUse and its work on direct recycling technologies for LFP batteries.

The project’s approach combines lifecycle sustainability assessment, circularity indicators, critical raw material analysis and economic evaluation to better understand trade-offs between material recovery, resource consumption and process performance.

STREAMS and HighMag: Supporting Europe’s strategic battery autonomy

Daniel Dias (Imperial College London) presented the sustainability work carried out within both STREAMS  &  HighMag

The projects demonstrate how eco-design principles, social impact assessment and techno-economic analysis can support the development of sustainable battery technologies while helping reduce Europe’s dependence on critical raw materials and strengthening strategic autonomy.

Common challenges identified across projects

Although the projects address different technologies, chemistries and stages of development, several common challenges emerged throughout the discussions:

  • Limited availability of high-quality industrial-scale data
  • Difficulties in scaling laboratory results to commercial applications
  • Uncertainty surrounding allocation methods and substitution assumptions
  • The need for harmonised sustainability methodologies
  • Communicating complex sustainability findings to non-specialist audiences

Experts agreed that greater collaboration across projects is essential to improve comparability, accelerate learning and strengthen the evidence base for sustainable battery recycling across Europe. The main key takeaways highlighted:

  • Sustainability assessment must go beyond carbon footprint alone.
  • Circularity, resource efficiency and social impacts are increasingly important evaluation criteria.
  • Validation is critical for supporting future industrial deployment.
  • Data quality remains one of the biggest challenges for sustainability assessments.
  • Harmonised methodologies would improve comparison between recycling technologies.
  • Collaboration between projects is helping build a stronger European battery ecosystem.

Looking ahead

The webinar concluded with a discussion on the importance of trust, transparency and stakeholder engagement in battery sustainability assessment.

The experts agreed that achieving a truly circular battery value chain will require not only robust scientific methodologies, but also effective communication and closer collaboration between researchers, industry, policymakers and society. Digital Product Passports, stakeholder engagement and harmonised assessment frameworks were highlighted as key tools for supporting transparency and informed decision-making across the battery sector.

The strong participation and active discussion demonstrated the growing momentum behind sustainable battery innovation in Europe. Through initiatives such as BATT-BRIDGE, researchers, industry representatives and policymakers are creating a shared platform to exchange knowledge, align methodologies and accelerate the transition towards a more circular, resilient and competitive European battery ecosystem.