As a significant project achievement, AETC has advanced the development of direct recycling technology for spent lithium-ion batteries and delivered battery-grade graphite to Aspilsan Enerji for full factory-scale production of 18650 battery cells with the recycled content
The european Union Battery Regulation, adopted in 2023, outlined a minimum requirement for recycled cobalt, lithium, and nickel content in batteries placed on the market by 2031, subsequently increasing these targets to be achieved by 2036. Meeting these ambitious goals will require significant advances in battery recycling technologies over the coming years. A critical first step towards this is the optimisation of battery recycling processes themselves. While black mass processing is widely regarded as one of the more universal recycling routes, it still faces challenges related to process efficiency, material recovery, and the production of high-purity battery-grade materials.
International collaboration for a more circular battery supply chain
Introduced by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme and the BATT4EU Partnership, the SAFELOOP project (Securely Advancing Future EVs with Li-Ion batteries through Optimized Pathways) was launched to accelerate the development of sustainable battery value chains. Within this initiative, Aspilsan Enerjii of Kayseri, Turkey, collaborated with suppliers of innovative battery materials focused on circularity, sustainability, and resilient supply chains. These efforts support one of Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities producing 18650 cells.
The journey began in December 2024 with the shipment of more than 72 kWh of end-of-life Aspilsan Enerji spent A28 18650 lithium-ion battery cells to American Energy Technologies Co. (AETC) for processing.
Using advanced direct-recycling, AETC recovered graphite from these spent cells and incorporated the recycled graphite material into newly manufactured anode active materials alongside primary graphite feedstock from project partners.
AETC is one of only a few active US manufacturers and suppliers of battery-grade graphite anode materials and conductive additives for cathode applications. Throughout its participation in the SAFELOOP and STREAMS (Sustainable Technologies for Reducing Europe’s battery raw Materials dependence) Horizon Europe projects, AETC developed a direct-recycling process of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries focused on the recovery, restoration ‘healing’, and full reuse of anode-grade graphite.
While valuable metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, stainless steel, copper and aluminium are also recovered, the primary objective of the process is the regeneration of high-value graphite from Aspilsan spent A28 18650 cells for battery applications. It is worth mentioning the key partners and material suppliers of the SAFELOOP anode material ecosystem – Koppers Denmark APS (Nyborg, Denmark), Blencowe Resources (United Kingdom), and Cadoux Limited of Cottesloe, Australia. Additionally, SAFELOOP project partners TÜBİTAK (Turkey), ISPE (Ukraine), and Yunasko Ltd (Ukraine) prequalified the recycled graphite in large-format lithium-ion battery cells prior to its integration into Aspilsan Enerji cells at the full Gigafactory scale.
High-quality recycled materials
The performance of next-generation batteries incorporating recovered materials is as important as the recycling process itself and the subsequent healing of material quality. For a recycling process to achieve widespread adoption, it must consistently produce materials of sufficiently high quality for battery manufacturing. From both environmental and economic perspectives, it is essential to develop batteries that exhibit high performance and long service lifetimes. Battery safety is also critically dependent on the properties of the constituent materials. In particular, lithium dendrite growth can occur on the graphite anode, potentially leading to cell failure and safety hazards. The propensity for dendrite formation is influenced by the crystallite size, morphology, and other physicochemical properties of battery-grade graphite.
On the cathode side, AETC processed an industrial lot of cathode active materials which were doped with recycled conductive additives and proprietary nanostructured ceramic materials designed to improve battery safety to the point of meeting Gen3 European Union EV Li-Ion Battery safety. Conductive carbon additives were incorporated into the cathode active materials particles which also originated from the recycling stream of spent Aspilsan 18650 lithium-ion battery cells. In this part, AETC processed at its plant at full production scale using a technology which was co-developed with SAFELOOP project coordinator, University of Oulu, Finland.
Project success
As part of the SAFELOOP project activities, AETC has advanced the development of direct recycling technology for spent lithium-ion batteries and 500 kg of battery-grade graphite containing 5 wt.% recycled material, as well as 750 kg of NMC cathode active material containing 1% recycled graphite conductive additive to Aspilsan for a pilot production campaign. This milestone represents one of the first demonstrations of independently processed recycled anode material being incorporated into a large-scale battery manufacturing process within an international effort to strengthen sustainable and secure energy supply chains.
All recovered materials were successfully integrated into the manufacturing process and passed through the complete cell production chain, including slurry preparation, electrode coating, calendaring, slitting, winding, electrolyte filling, formation, and cell assembly. The production of thousands of 18650 lithium-ion cells was completed in July 2026. These cells will be integrated into battery modules for an electric bus battery manufactured by Bozankaya, thereby demonstrating the practical viability of recycled battery materials in a real application.
This achievement highlights the industrial innovation fostered through the EU Horizon Programme and demonstrates the readiness of recycled battery materials for commercial-scale manufacturing. The successful implementation of recycled graphite in the 18650 cells further reflects the collaborative efforts of the research and development, production, and quality assurance teams, whose contributions enabled the seamless integration of new materials into the cell bill of materials.
The outcomes of the SAFELOOP project represent an important step toward achieving the objectives of the EU Battery Regulation and accelerating the transition to a sustainable circular battery economy. The strong manufacturing performance and successful deployment of recycled battery materials demonstrate the technical maturity of direct recycling approaches and underscore their potential to support future large-scale battery production. These results provide further evidence that high-quality recycled materials can contribute to both resource efficiency and battery performance, thereby strengthening the long-term sustainability of the battery value chain.
Aspilsan Energi and AETC have closely collaborated on the development of SAFELOOP 18650 cells with the recycled content. In June 2026, they celebrated the first full factory-scale production of lithium-ion battery cells using recycled graphite anodes and recycled carbon additives for cathodes.
