Today, the Commission has approved an investment of more than €70 million from the European Regional Development Fund, under the 2014-2020 programming period, to develop lithium-ion battery recycling technology in Silesia, in southern Poland.
- 30 September 2022
Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira said: “I am pleased to see that this new project has been approved. It will support research and innovation for the batteries sector and help develop new and environmentally friendly recycling technologies, allowing a recovery of precious raw materials from used batteries and catalysts. This is also an important project to foster scientific research and job development throughout the region.”
The project will support the construction of a Li-ion battery and auto catalyst recycling industrial plant and the research into the design and development of technologies to recover metals of strategic economic importance from spent Li-ion batteries, such as those used in electric vehicles and car catalysts. These include cobalt, lithium, nickel, and platinum group metals. In addition, the EU contribution will support the development of the safe transport, sorting, and mechanical processing of batteries.
The project is expected to create at least 100 new direct jobs, and approximately 300 indirect jobs. The pilot will be completed in 2023, a second optimisation and development phase will then run until 2027.
For more information on Cohesion Policy in Poland, consult the Cohesion Open Data Platform and the Kohesio platform.