MRIWA WEBINARS: CRITICAL MINERALS & TAILINGS VALORISATION SERIES

Resilient Value Chains for the Energy Transition: A Circular Economy approach on Critical Battery Materials with Dr Stéphanie Riché & Dr Caroline Celle

Join us for our new international monthly webinar series where we speak with researchers from around the globe who are advancing the fields of critical minerals and tailing valorisation.

The energy transition is known to be intensive in critical raw materials and must not lead to replacing the current dependence on fossil fuels with a dependence on raw materials. It must be based on assumed sovereignty over the necessary materials and a quest toward resource efficiency at each stage of a circular economy of materials. This presentation will first illustrate how supply/demand and supply chain risk analysis can support national and European strategies. It will also illustrate how key-enabling technologies can facilitate the transformation of linear material value chains into circular ones.

The second part of this presentation will focus on the circularity of battery materials. The replacement of critical materials for battery development is strategically addressed by developing new post Li-ion chemistries without Ni, Co, Li, and Cu, such as Na or K-ion batteries. Additionally, the reuse of recycled inputs from production scraps or end-of-life batteries is being explored. Intensive research is ongoing to improve the electrochemical performance of high-energy-density batteries and to develop low-cost, low-environmental-impact batteries. After a brief introduction to CEA’s R&D facilities, the presentation will focus on the reuse of purified black mass lixiviates for the synthesis of advanced cathode active materials (PCAM and CAM). It will also evaluate the impact of the nature of impurities on overall performance.