21. March 2025 | Press releases:

Batteries: Producing sustainably with smart decisions TU Braunschweig establishes transparency platform and cooperates with Australia

Joint press release by Technische Universität Braunschweig and the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST

  • Key results of the joint project: A transparency platform and cooperation with the University of Melbourne in resource-rich Australia
  • Scientists are promoting holistic sustainability assessment and decision support in battery production.
  • Companies in particular can benefit from the knowledge gained in order to meet new and stricter requirements, especially the EU Battery Regulation.

New regulations require battery manufacturers to use a minimum proportion of recycled materials, as well as to provide proof of the origin of raw materials and the carbon footprint of battery cells. In particular, this concerns critical raw materials for battery cell production, such as nickel, lithium and cobalt. In addition, companies face the challenge of creating transparency in their supply chains and collecting information from suppliers for the purpose of verification. In order to meet these requirements, information is needed about the value-added routes and quality of cathode active materials, which are synthesised from raw materials of different origins.

This is precisely where the project ‘Sustainable and Transparent Battery Materials Value Chains for a Circular Battery Economy’ (SUSTRAB), coordinated by TU Braunschweig, comes in.

Global supply chains, global relevance: TU Braunschweig is cooperating with the University of Melbourne

The project was supported by several associated partners, including the Australian joint project ‘Future Battery Industries CRC’ (FBICRC), which provided primary materials from Australia as well as expert knowledge on the material supply chain. Due to the global relevance of the transport and energy transition, the cooperation between Australian and German partners represents an important contribution to opening up new value creation routes.

While Germany is increasingly expanding its production capacities for batteries, Australia is pursuing the goal of establishing itself as a supplier of ecologically sustainable battery raw materials. Within the framework of SUSTRAB, TU Braunschweig was able to conclude a cooperation agreement with the University of Melbourne, which should ensure research and internationalisation beyond the end of the project.

Further project results:

  • The Institute for Particle Technology (iPAT) at TU Braunschweig analysed battery suspensions produced on a small scale in the Battery LabFactory Braunschweig (BLB). The scientists derived process-structure-property relationships in order to be able to evaluate and predict the influence of novel nickel-rich cathode active materials from various sources on cell performance. This means that active materials that are produced with a high energy input only need to be available in small quantities for their suitability as battery components to be tested and for material losses during processing to be minimised.
  • The Institute for Machine Tools and Production Technology (IWF) at TU Braunschweig has developed a transparency platform that enables the structured input of production data for the purpose of life cycle assessment on the one hand and, on the other, the trusted exchange of data between organisations in the battery value chain in a blockchain network for the purpose of tracking materials. The prototypical application is finding its way into the BLB’s EducationLab, where it is available as a demonstrator for students, researchers and the interested public.
  • At BASF SE, it was shown that it is possible to produce nickel-rich cathode active materials with a high cycle life using raw materials from different primary sources as well as secondary raw materials from recycling processes and mixtures of various raw material sources. The findings provide certainty about the use of various material mixtures to meet the requirements of the EU Battery Directive. According to this, from 2031, recycled materials of 16 per cent for cobalt and 6 per cent each for nickel and lithium must be verified.
  • BELLA (Battery and Electrochemistry Laboratory) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has carried out a detailed characterisation of the cathode active materials using modern methods. In particular, their properties and electrochemical performance were compared and it was shown that the samples, independently of the raw materials used, have similar characteristics. The development of new characterisation methods enables reliable verification of product quality for different material compositions.
  • At the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, nickel-rich cathode active materials were also synthesised from different primary and secondary raw materials in order to determine their influence on the resulting product properties of the cathode active materials. It was found that secondary raw materials and primary raw materials of different origins at high degrees of purity lead to products with equivalent properties.

Project coordinator Professor Christoph Herrmann summarises: “Transparent value creation routes are a central building block for the sustainable development of complex production networks. If over 40 percent of the greenhouse gas potential of a battery is due to the materials used to build it, then the design of sustainable value creation routes offers a great deal of leverage for reducing emissions. In SUSTRAB, we have shown how transparency regarding the origin of materials can be reliably achieved and that, while maintaining the same quality, the greenhouse gas potential can be significantly reduced depending on the chosen value creation routes.”

Project data

The SUSTRAB project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with around 2.65 million euros from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2025 as part of the Climate and Transformation Fund. Of this, more than 840,000 euros went to TU Braunschweig.