STREAMS: Sustainable Technologies for Reducing Europe’s bAttery raw MaterialS project

This three-year initiative addresses the urgent need to strengthen Europe’s economic base making it fit for the green and digital transition and less dependent on Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) from third countries.

The Project’s official launch was on the 30th and 31st of January, hosted at the premises of the project coordinator, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GMBH, in Vienna, Austria.

The two-day kick-off meeting brought together all partners of the STREAMS consortium, comprising representatives from various organisations, working together to redefine Europe’s position in the battery manufacturing landscape.

STREAMS addresses the European Union’s challenges in sourcing critical raw materials for batteries, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, and more. This initiative aligns with sustainable development goals, targeting clean energy, decent work, responsible consumption, and climate action. Positioned strategically, STREAMS contributes to Europe’s battery independence by developing sustainable technologies for recovering raw materials, in line with the Strategic Action Plan on Batteries and proposed regulations.

In order to successfully achieve its goals, STREAMS will focus on:

• Strengthening the Domestic Supply Chain: STREAMS will enhance Europe’s battery materials supply chain, reducing dependency on imported raw materials and boosting resilience, competitiveness, and strategic autonomy in the global battery manufacturing industry.

• Comprehensive Technological Solutions: The project will develop a portfolio of flexible and scalable technologies for the sustainable production of battery-grade precursors, anode, and cathode active materials.

• Utilization of Diverse Material Streams: STREAMS will promote the use of different primary and secondary sources, along with recycled battery mass, to further decrease dependence on third countries.

• Circular Models for Sustainability: By developing circular models, manufacturing battery cells at pilot scale, and testing according to established standards, STREAMS will identify optimal conditions for future exploitation of project results.

Leitat will develop a continuous electrochemical Li-recovery process and selective liquid membranes for the purification and recovery of critical and strategic metals. Leitat will also dismantle batteries delivered to the consortium via IMN. Leitat will also assess the environmental and social sustainability of the STREAMS processes and technologies by applying life-cycle based methods (LCA, Social-LCA) the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework.