A used car battery is more like a cake: lithium, nickel, cobalt
and graphite are mixed and layered together — and getting those
ingredients back out separately is one of the biggest challenges
in battery recycling. Today, only around 10–12% of lithium-ion
batteries make it back into the loop at all, with much of that
recovery coming from the steel casing.
In this episode, Cejna Anna Quist-Jensen, coordinator of the
13-partner Horizon Europe project BeyondBattRec, explains why
better recycling may start before a battery ever reaches the
shredder. We talk about 1,000°C smelters, bacteria that produce
sulfuric acid for bioleaching, and why Europe’s biggest lithium
mine might already be sitting in people’s driveways.
In This Episode
What actually happens inside a smelter running above 1,000°C,
and where the lithium ends up
Why BeyondBattRec argues the problem isn't the acid at the
end of the process, but the shredder at the beginning
How graphite is pulled out of the black mass by flotation,
before any leaching happens
Where Europe gets its lithium from, and what the "urban mine"
has to do with that
The EU target: 80% lithium recovery by the end of 2031 — and
whether that's realistic
Guest
Cejna Anna Quist-Jensen, Associate Professor,
Aalborg University (Department of Chemistry and Bioscience). She
is a membrane researcher who has spent years recovering salts and
metals from contaminated liquid streams — seawater, industrial
wastewater, and now battery leachate. She co-coordinates
BeyondBattRec together with Aamer Ali.
Further Reading
BeyondBattRec — Project websiteGoals, work packages, and the
consortium's latest publications.
CORDIS factsheet, Grant Agreement 10119303213 partners, 7
countries, running through the end of 2028.
European Commission: New rules to boost recycling efficiency from
waste batteriesThe EU Battery Regulation and its recovery
targets, in plain language.
Välimets et al. (2026), Waste Management — Biogas-derived sulfur
enhances microbial sulfuric acid productionThe acib publication
out of Tulln on the sulfur-eating bacteria — open access.
Navarrete-Segado et al. (2026), Energy Storage Materials —
Sustainable strategies for graphite anode regenerationWhy
graphite is the overlooked part of every battery — co-authored by
Cejna's co-coordinator Aamer Ali, open access.
Shirazi, Ali & Quist-Jensen (2024), Desalination — Membrane
crystallization for recovery of lithium carbonate
crystalsCejna's own work on exactly the step she describes on
air — turning the leached solution into lithium carbonate via
membrane crystallization. Not open access.
Die BioteXperten, Season 1, Episode 18 — with Silja VälimetsThe
episode Kathi refers to in conversation.
Funding Acknowledgement
This episode was produced within the framework of BeyondBattRec,
a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe
research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No.
101193032). Views and opinions expressed are those of the guest
and host only and do not necessarily reflect those of the
European Union or the granting authority; neither the European
Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for
them.
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