- German battery recycling startup, cylib, has begun construction of its first industrial plant in Europe, which is set to recycle 30,000 tons worth of end-of-life EV batteries, every year.
- Built in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the facility is set to create 170 jobs, when it goes live in 2026.
- The factory, allowing EV batteries to be repurposed again and again, will be a powerful asset in Europe’s battery industry.
Europe’s biggest battery recycling site yet set to open in 2026
cylib, which already has backing from the venture capital arms of key OEM players such as Porsche and Bosch, already have a class-leading recycling process in place, which helps recover all elements within lithium-ion batteries, along with production scrap, and the black mass produced from recycling. The firm also says that its process produces 30% less GHG potential, compared to conventional battery recycling processes. Now, it’ll be able to put that process into mass-action, with the site also located at a strategic location – Chempark Dormagen, a sustainability-led chemical park, with strong transport links to other European battery-related supply chains. The upcoming factory will be able to recycle seven of the seventeen raw materials defined as critical by the European Union, all found within EV batteries: Including lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminium, and copper.
Upon its completion, the site will be one of the largest in the region – it’s 30,000-ton capability trounces that of Europe’s previous largest EV battery recycling site, Hydrovolt, which is capable of recycling approximately 12,000 tons worth of EV battery material per year. That creates some serious partner opportunities for cylib, particularly with EU law now requiring battery manufacturers and suppliers to be responsible for the life cycle of the battery.
cylib CEO, Lilian Schwich, commented:
“Successful structural change becomes tangible where green mobility succeeds through the turnaround from linear to circular processes. Fuels such as coal and oil have carried our society for decades, but now the time is ripe for an industrial revolution, characterized by the sustainable use of resources. This is exemplified by the recycling of lithium-ion batteries,”
