cylib receives € 26.1 million in funding for battery recycling plant

Aachen/Dormagen — The battery recy­cling company cylib has secu­red 26.1 million euros in funding from the Euro­pean Union’s ERDF/JTF NRW program to build one of the largest lithium-ion battery recy­cling plants in Europe at CHEMPARK Dormagen.

“We are deeply grateful to the state of North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia and the Euro­pean Union for funding this project and support­ing our mission to produce high-quality mate­ri­als for sustainable batte­ries and resi­li­ent Euro­pean value chains,” says Dr. Lilian Schwich, co-foun­­der and co-CEO. “This under­lines both our tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise and the successful work of our team.”

The funding, which is part of the “Produktives.NRW” program, follows an initial commit­ment in Novem­ber 2024 and will speci­fi­cally finance the first expan­sion stage of the indus­trial plant. The plant will process black mass (an inter­me­diate product from shred­ded battery mate­ri­als) to extract criti­cal raw mate­ri­als such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel and manganese from lithium-ion batte­ries, ther­eby streng­thening Euro­pe’s geopo­li­ti­cal inde­pen­dence in these stra­te­gic materials. 

Tech­no­logy deli­vers supe­rior recy­cling rates

The OLiC (Opti­mi­zed Lithium & Graphite Reco­very) process reco­vers more than 90 percent of criti­cal mate­ri­als from used batte­ries and produ­ces 80 percent less CO₂ emis­si­ons than primary raw mate­rial extra­c­tion. cylib is now setting up its water-based tech­no­logy, which has proven itself in pilot opera­tion, as an indus­trial plant. In the final expan­sion stage, the plant, which is sche­du­led to go into opera­tion in 2027, will process up to 140,000 elec­tric vehicle batte­ries per year (equi­va­lent to 60,000 tons of used batte­ries or 20,000 tons of black mass). 

With the rapid growth of e‑mobility — every fourth new vehicle sold world­wide is alre­ady elec­tric — Euro­pe’s demand for battery mate­ri­als is also growing rapidly. The plant shows how modern recy­cling tech­no­logy is making Europe inde­pen­dent of raw mate­rial imports and at the same time streng­thening secu­rity of supply. 

About cylib
cylib is a holi­stic and sustainable battery recy­cling scale-up foun­ded in Aachen in 2022 by Dr. Lilian Schwich, Paul Sabarny and Dr. Gideon Schwich. With over 120 employees, the company grew out of rese­arch at RWTH Aachen Univer­sity and produ­ces high-quality mate­ri­als for sustainable batte­ries and resi­li­ent Euro­pean value chains. 

The water-based OLiC process effi­ci­ently reco­vers raw mate­ri­als from battery modu­les, black mass or produc­tion scrap and achie­ves a recy­cling effi­ci­ency of more than 90 percent for lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and manganese with an 80 percent redu­ced carbon foot­print compared to primary raw mate­rial extra­c­tion — thus enab­ling a circu­lar economy. Backed by indus­­try-rele­­vant inves­tors such as Porsche Ventures and Bosch Ventures, cylib raised 55 million euros in its Series A round — the largest finan­cing round in Euro­pean battery recy­cling to date — and secu­red more than 27 million euros in addi­tio­nal funding. — https://www.cylib.de/