Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Conference / February 03, 2026 - February 05, 2026
2nd Conference on Battery Direct Recycling
February 3-5, 2026
Congress Centrum Wuerzburg
Congress Centrum Würzburg
The direct recycling of battery materials is a key strategy for maximizing sustainability and strengthening geopolitical independence along the battery value chain. Not least with the new EU Battery Regulation, this innovative recycling process is increasingly coming into focus. The regulation demands batteries with a low carbon footprint, stricter regulations for critical raw materials (CRM), and high-quality recycling processes with defined recovery rates for CRM. In addition, the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) places a stronger emphasis on circular economy and efficient recycling.
To advance this future topic, the Fraunhofer Center for Electromobility Bavaria (FZEB) of Fraunhofer ISC invites you to the second "Conference on Battery Direct Recycling." The event brings together leading experts from science, industry, and politics to exchange ideas on key topics such as design for recycling, innovative recycling methods, digitalization, life cycle assessment, as well as political and economic frameworks, and to create a strong network for the future of battery recycling. At the first conference in 2024, over 150 participants from research and industry took the opportunity for professional exchange and actively contributed to building a strong community for the direct recycling of batteries.
We look forward to providing a platform for this forward-looking topic again in 2026!
Conference Program
Day 1 / February 3, 2026
Registration 10:00 CET, Start 12:00 CET
Session 1: POLICY |
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| 12:20 | Sustainable Batteries: Advancing Circular Economy Strategies in a European Battery Value Chain (Maximilian Stephan, Fraunhofer ISI) |
| 12:50 | Incentives and Regulatory Frameworks for Direct Recycling in Europe (Sebastian Will, VDI/VDE-IT GmbH) |
| 13:10 | Strategic Pathways for Circular Battery Supply Chains (Veit Kohnhauser, Supply Chain Intelligence Institute Austria ASCII / University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria) |
Session 2: PROCESSES |
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| 13:35 | Direct Recycling @ Salching: Bavaria’s Hub for Cell Recycling and Regional Collaboration (Moritz Poremba, BMW Group) |
| 14:05 | Development of sustainable direct recycling and upcycling technologies for Li-ion battery cathodes (George P. Demopoulos, McGill University) |
| 14:25 | Innovative Direct Reshaping and Reconditioning of NMC Cathode Active Material from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries (Max Larry, University of Liège) |
| 14:45 | Direct Recycling of NMC Scraps: Impact of Fluorine Release During Calcination Revealed by Advanced Multi-Scale Characterization (Margaux Lefebvre, IEF France) |
Coffee break |
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Session 3: PROCESSES |
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| 15:40 | Shredding & Sorting for Better Black Mass: Morphology Matters in Direct Recycling (Rob Sommerville, University of Birmingham) |
| 16:10 | Can we close the loop? Direct recycling to enable a sustainable battery value chain (Andreas Flegler, Fraunhofer ISC) |
| 16:30 | Recycled Type Lithium Ion Battery with Cathode Prepared from Black Mass by Direct Synthesis Procedure (Ryohei Mori, Green Science Alliance) |
| 16:50 | From Waste to Resource: Environmentally Viable Direct Recycling of Li-ion Battery Production Scraps Assisted by Pressurized Fluids (Gilles Philippot, University of Bordeaux) |
| 17:10 | Accelerating Direct Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries with Predictive Microstructure Simulation (Timotheus Jahnke, Viridis Recycling GmbH / Roman Buchheit, Math2Market) |
| 17:30 | Wet and dry sustainable direct regeneration of spent LFP (Moulay-Tahar Sougrati, Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier ICGM / University of Montpellier CNRS) |
| 17:50 | An efficient molten salts-based process for the direct recycling of LFP from End-of-Life cells and manufacturing scraps (Lorenzo de Vita, University of Pavia) |
| 18:10 | Fast and Low-Energy Relithiation of Spent Lithium Iron Phosphate Cathode Active Material (Jeroen Spooren, Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch onderzoek VITO) |
| 18:30 | Poster session |
Day 2 / February 4, 2026
Start 8:00 CET
Session 4: EU INITIATIVES |
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| 09:10 | Direct Re-Cycling or creation of new data (Patrik Johansson, BATTERY 2030+ Initiative / Uppsala University) |
| 09:30 | Direct recycling of Li-ion batteries: challenges, prospects and main insights from the RENOVATE project (Eliana Quartarone, University of Pavia) |
| 09:50 | ReUse – Efficient direct recycling for low-value LFP battery for circular and sustainable waste management (Claudia Stauch, Fraunhofer ISC) |
| 10:10 | REVITALISE - Materials and flows (Emma Kendrik, University of Birmingham) |
| 10:30 | Advancing Circularity in Battery Materials: Direct Recycling of CAMs in RESPECT project (Justo Garcia, Orano Group) |
| 10:50 | ReMade@ARI: a pioneering project for characterization of materials in the Circular Economy (Marta Mirolo, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) |
Session 5: PROCESSES |
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| 11:40 | ReCell Center: Synchrotron Characterization of Cathode Recovery Methods Through Direct Recycling (Eva Allen, Argonne National Laboratory) |
| 12:10 | New Insights for the Direct Recycling ol LIBs Materials (Sascha Nowak, University of Münster) |
| 12:30 | Insights into the Mechanisms Behind Structural Repair of Spent NCM Cathode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries (Shuaiwei Liu, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT) |
| 12:50 | »Direct Scrap Recycling: Technological Opportunities in Battery Cell Manufacturing« (Marco Ahuis, PowerCo SE) |
Lunch break |
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Session 6: SUSTAINABILITY |
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| 14:35 | Battery Passport – From Compliance to Competitiveness through Product Data Intelligence (Josepha Anna Pfeiffer, Robert Bosch GmbH) |
| 14:55 | Techno-Economic Analysis of Black Mass Recovery: Towards Direct Recycling Applications (Lisa Schlott, University of Münster) |
| 15:15 | Integrating circularity into Life Cycle Assessment: Metrics to measure the sustainability of battery direct recycling (Guido Sonnemann, University of Bordeaux) |
| 15:35 | From Pilot to Playbook: Making the Battery Passport Work (Heiko Gräbe / Corinna Jendrzey, Siemens Energy Global) |
Session 7: PROCESSES |
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| 16:30 | Industrial Pathways for LFP and Graphite Recovery: FAAM’s Approach to Scalable Battery Recycling (Carmen Cavallo, FAAM) |
| 16:50 | The Impact of Discharge method for Preserving the Battery electrode integrity (Neha Garg, Aalto University) |
| 17:10 | Investigation and characterization of the de-stacking process for electrode and separator materials in the context of automated battery cell disassembly (Sebastian Henschel, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT) |
| 17:30 | In-depth study of blackmass flotation to improve selectivity (Mathilde Perrin, University of Grenoble) |
| 17:50 | Developing direct LFP recycling from the worst possible starting point: Shredded cells (Kristian Oluf Sylvester-Hvid, Danish Technological Institute) |
| 19:30 | Dinner(Registration required) |
Day 3 / February 5, 2026
Start 8:00 CET, End 16:30 CET, Optional Labtour 16:45-17:45 CET
Session 8: PROCESSES |
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| 09:10 | Industrialization and adaptation of the KYBURZ direct LFP recycling process: Opportunities and challenges (David Flaschenträger, Kyburz) |
| 09:40 | Laser applications in battery recycling (Max Rettenmeier, Trumpf Laser- und Systemtechnik SE) |
| 10:00 | Many Roads Lead to Delamination: Pathways for Direct Recycling of LFP Production Scraps (Hannes Bauer, Fraunhofer ISC) |
| 10:20 | Efficient, Selective Leaching of Battery Cathodes at Room Temperature (Joel Cornelio, University of Birmingham) |
| 10:40 | Direct recycling of spent anode: Challenge on graphite separation and regeneration (Cedric Espinet, Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier ICGM / University of Montpellier CNRS) |
Session 9: DESIGN FOR RECYCLING AND OTHER STRATEGIES |
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| 11:30 | Designed for Dismantling: Debonding-on-Demand as a Key Enabler of Circular Battery Packs (Elizaveta Kessler, AMC / Henkel AG) |
| 12:00 | Particle-based magnetic additives as information providers in lithium-ion cells (Jakob Endres, Fraunhofer ISC) |
| 12:20 | Direct recycling of Li metal ? trials, errors and feasibility (Nanna Bjerre-Christensen, Avesta Holding) |
| 12:40 | Is it really worthwhile recovering the electrolyte from end-of-life lithium ion batteries? (Camilla Zanoni, University of Pavia) |
Lunchbreak |
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Session 10: PROCESSES |
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| 14:20 | Direct recycling of next generation lithium battery materials (Stiven Lopez Guzman, CICenergiGUNE) |
| 14:40 | Direct Recycling approaches for Ionic liquid electrolyte based Lithium-ion Batteries (Aravindda Swamy, Avesta Holding) |
| 15:00 | Closed-Loop Direct Recycling of Graphite and Cathode Active Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries (Marilena Mancini, Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg ZSW) |
| 15:20 | Direct recycling of anode and cathode materials from End-of-life Sodium-Ion Batteries (Bowen Liu, University of Birmingham) |
| 15:40 | The Organic Solution: A Fresh Look at Li-ion Battery Recycling (Thomas Bibienne, Hatch / Paolo Guida, KAUST) |
| 16:00 | Closing / Poster prize |
