CISTEMEEC

A structuring project within the RM + (Reverse Metallurgy) portfolio, Cisteemec is a research study implemented within the scope of Belgium’s national recovery and resilience plan and is being undertaken in partnership with numerous Walloon industrial partners, the Centre de Recherche Métallurgique (CRM) and the University of Liege (GeMMe, GREEnMat, PEPs).

Cisteemec tackles, from different aspects, the challenges tied to the management and the recycling of critical materials in electrical mobility and the technologies of the energy transition. It aims to accelerate the rollout of Walloon facilities which will become actors in the recycling of this type of material. The CTP more specifically intervenes in the project at the level of the recycling of the lithium-ion batteries (LIB) which, amongst other uses, power electrical vehicles, bicycles and scooters. The outcome of our developments aims at the assembly of a demonstrator which will enable the recovery of the ‘black mass’ (the active material in LIBs) from battery modules;  we will also contribute to the development of a hydrometallurgical process aiming for the synthesis of the metallic precursors from this black mass in order to manufacture new cathodes for LIBs.