ASAP- Recycling: Avansert Silisium-Anode-Produkt med Resirkulering

Funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN).

ASAP-Resirkulering is a project that aims to enable the fastest possible progress toward recyclable, silicon-based anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Cenate currently has a first-generation product that is close to qualification for commercial production, and the company is working to begin construction of its first factory in 2025, with a capacity of 10,000 tons by 2028. This will result in millions of tons of batteries containing Cenate’s materials in the coming years. Ideally, as many of these batteries as possible should be recycled, even though silicon itself is not a scarce resource. It is therefore important that silicon does not interfere with the recycling of other materials, and that Cenate’s materials can also be recycled.

In addition, Cenate has a long-term focus on another product class—Gen II—a porous material designed to allow higher silicon content in the anode. For both Gen I and Gen II materials, it is important to develop effective surface protection that not only slows the degradation of battery materials but also preserves their structure so they can be reused.

Cenate will therefore research new approaches to surface protection and to controlling porosity, so that stress on the material surfaces during battery cycling is minimized. Cenate has a long-standing research collaboration with battery researchers and material characterization experts at IFE and SINTEF, who have contributed to much of Cenate’s research and product development. In this project, they will also engage new partners.

Hydro and NTNU have an established collaboration on graphite recycling, linked to HydroVolt’s recycling facility. Building on this, NTNU will also contribute to the recycling of Cenate’s proprietary battery active materials, helping ensure seamless integration of Cenate’s innovations into the broader battery ecosystem. Cenate aims to understand how its materials behave in such processes and how the product must be adapted to enable efficient separation. Another new partner is Norner, which will assist in developing solvent-free production methods.

Even if the goal of recycling is not fully achieved, a potential doubling of the materials’ lifetime would still provide significant value.