A consortium of in total twelve European universities and companies, including Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), is currently planning to establish the first lithium supply chain in Europe. The goal of the EU-funded "LiCORNE" research project is to increase Europe's lithium processing and refining capacity to produce battery-grade chemicals from ores, brines, and off-specification battery cathode materials.
Fourteen different innovative technologies will now be investigated, which have been selected due to low capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX), a low carbon footprint and industrial scalability. Eight research and development centers in Europe will lead these technologies to eliminate the major barriers to lithium processing and recovery.
The project is currently scheduled to run for a total of four years, from October 2022 to September 2026. Within two and a half years, the project partners will intensively research the technologies and raise their development status from the original TRL 2 (Technology Readiness Level) to TRL 4. Subsequently, the most promising technologies will be selected for upscaling to TRL 5 based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA).
For the final phase, the design of a prototype system is planned to be demonstrated at TRL 5 and to produce about 1 kilogram of battery-grade lithium products.
Lessons learned will be communicated to a broad range of stakeholders. Based on the project results and the cost of the lithium produced, an initial business model for a complete and optimized lithium supply chain in Europe could then be established.