Determining the key drivers of the potential secondary battery raw materials supply from the urban mine in the European Union
Jana Husmann, Antoine Beylot, Raphael Ginster, Alice Marie, Stéphanie Muller, Audrey Philippe, Daniel Monfort, Steffen Blömeke, Thomas Spengler, Christoph Herrmann
Abstract
Vehicle stocks in the European Union (EU) can serve as an urban mine for secondary battery raw materials and reduce reliance on international supply chains. A prospective material flow analysis (MFA) model is developed to evaluate the potential of the EU urban mine until 2050. It can support the development of policies concerning focus areas to achieve a circular economy and the definition of target values. The secondary supply is differentiated into production scrap and End-of-Life batteries and the number of recycling loops the materials potentially traverse is analysed. The analysed scenarios show that market developments (e.g., dominant cell chemistries and shared mobility) can influence material demand and the potential secondary supply the most. Meeting the recycled content target values by the EU Batteries Regulation is only realistic with production scrap recycling. The share of material recycled more than once is most likely below 5 % at all times.