Tozero produces ‘first’ industrial-scale recycled graphite

The Munich-based company said that it believes it is the first in the world to produce the recycled material at scale.

Conventional battery recycling methods often result in graphite being burned or lost to waste streams due to the use of strong acids. However, Tozero’s process results in over 80% of the graphite being recovered.

Sarah Fleischer, co-founder and CEO of Tozero, said: “This is a milestone not just for Tozero, but for Europe’s battery industry as a whole. We’ve already seen our recycled lithium successfully re-enter Europe’s supply chain, and now we’re proving the same for graphite. Despite being essential for battery stability, graphite is often overlooked in recycling – largely seen as unrecoverable – yet it is even more critical and geopolitically exposed than lithium.

“With our [next] plant on track, we’re scaling to recover even more critical materials, helping companies worldwide decarbonise, secure local supply chains and move towards true circularity – bringing lithium-ion battery waste to zero.”

At present, 98% of Europe’s graphite is imported and it is predicted that there will be an 800,000 metric tonne deficit of the material in 2030 across the world.

Battery and car manufacturers are increasingly looking towards recycled graphite to meet demand.

Tozero

With backing from Honda, Tozero was founded in 2022 in an attempt to close “Europe’s recycled battery supply gap”.

Its industrial-scale “Pilot Plant” was opened in summer 2023 and recovers both lithium and graphite from black mass – a byproduct of the mechanical preprocessing of battery waste made up of cathodes and anodes.

It is estimated that its process cuts emissions by an estimated 70% compared to conventional mineral mining.

By 2027, the company has a target to produce over 2,000 tonnes of recycled graphite, with plans to rapidly scale beyond 10,000 tonnes by 2030.

Tozero is in the process of working with battery waste suppliers in over ten countries to reduce “Europe’s reliance on imports” and the carbon footprint of battery production.