Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

Batteries are inside phones, laptops and electric cars. They need a metal called lithium. Most of the lithium for Europe comes from China today.

A small company in Germany wants to change this. It is called Accurec. It is in a city called Krefeld. The family started it in 1995. About 85 people work there.

The company takes old batteries and breaks them down. Then it puts the pieces in water. The lithium goes into the water. The other parts do not. This makes the lithium easy to take out.

Right now the company saves half of the lithium in each battery. It wants to save more than 80 percent by early 2027. This would help Europe make its own batteries.

battery

A thing that stores electricity to power a machine.

lithium

A light metal used in modern batteries.

metal

A hard material such as iron, gold or aluminium.

recycling

Using old things again to make new things.

company

A business that makes or sells something.

process

A set of steps used to make or do something.

percent

A part of one hundred.

electric car

A car that runs on a battery instead of petrol.

Level 2 — Elementary

Europe wants to build its own electric car batteries, but it depends heavily on other countries for the chemicals inside them. China supplies between 65 and 70 percent of the battery grade lithium chemicals that Europe uses. A family owned company in Germany believes recycling can reduce that dependence.

The company is Accurec Recycling, founded in 1995, with plants in Krefeld and Mulheim an der Ruhr. It employs about 85 people and currently processes around 5,000 tonnes of batteries a year at Krefeld. A new lithium recovery plant opened there in December 2025.

Accurec's process is called CLIMA, and the clever part is very simple. The batteries are first heated, which changes the lithium so that it dissolves in water. As Simon Bremer, the head of development, explains, the entire rest of the battery will not dissolve in water, only the lithium. Heat from the heating stage is captured and reused, which cuts energy use by about half and carbon dioxide emissions by more than 59 percent.

The company recovers 50 percent of the lithium in a battery today, already meeting the European target set for 2027, and wants to pass 80 percent by the first quarter of 2027. It is investing 5.5 million euros to double the plant and reach 20,000 tonnes a year. The bigger obstacle is economic. Most European recyclers sell a mixed material called black mass, and Asian buyers pay more for it than European processors can.

depend on

To need something or someone in order to manage.

supply

To provide something that is needed.

tonne

A metric unit of weight equal to 1,000 kilograms.

dissolve

To mix into a liquid until it disappears.

recovery

The act of getting something back.

emissions

Gases released into the air, often harmful ones.

target

A result that someone aims to achieve.

obstacle

Something that blocks progress.

Level 3 — Intermediate

Europe's plan to build electric cars at home runs into an inconvenient fact upstream of the factory gate. The cells may be assembled in Germany or Poland, but the chemicals inside them are largely not European. China accounts for 65 to 70 percent of the battery grade lithium chemicals that European manufacturers buy, and no amount of assembly capacity changes that. One of the more interesting attempts to loosen that grip is not a government programme but a family firm in Krefeld with 85 employees.

Accurec Recycling has been in the battery business since 1995 and has spent more than a decade working specifically on lithium ion recovery. It runs sites at Krefeld and Mulheim an der Ruhr, processes roughly 5,000 tonnes of batteries a year, and opened a dedicated lithium recovery plant in December 2025. A 5.5 million euro investment is intended to double the facility and lift throughput to 20,000 tonnes annually.

Its CLIMA process is elegant because it exploits a chemical asymmetry rather than brute force. Thermal pre treatment converts the lithium into a water soluble form, after which, in the words of development head Simon Bremer, the entire rest of the battery is insoluble in water except for the lithium. Separation therefore becomes a matter of washing rather than aggressive acid leaching. Heat released during pyrolysis is captured and fed back into the recrystallisation stage, cutting energy consumption by roughly half and carbon dioxide emissions by more than 59 percent. Current recovery stands at 50 percent of contained lithium, which already satisfies the European Union target for 2027, with more than 80 percent targeted by the first quarter of that year.

The technology, however, is not the binding constraint. The structural problem is that most European recyclers stop at black mass, the mixed powder of metals left after shredding, and then export it to China and Korea for final refining because Asian buyers consistently outbid any European processor. Black mass has been regulated as hazardous waste since December 2025, which in principle restricts those exports, and Bremer argues for two further measures: a requirement that batteries sold in Europe contain European sourced recycled content, and genuine enforcement against black mass leaving the continent. Without a buyer of last resort inside Europe, better recovery chemistry simply produces a more valuable export.

upstream

At an earlier stage in a supply chain.

capacity

The maximum amount that can be produced or held.

asymmetry

A difference between two things that can be used to separate them.

soluble

Able to be dissolved in a liquid.

leaching

Using liquid, often acid, to draw metals out of a material.

pyrolysis

Breaking down material by heating it without oxygen.

throughput

Level 4 — Advanced

Industrial policy in Europe has spent several years fixated on cell assembly, which is the visible and politically legible part of a battery supply chain and also the part with the least strategic leverage. The chokepoint sits further upstream, in the conversion of raw lithium into battery grade chemicals, and there China supplies 65 to 70 percent of what European manufacturers consume. Against that backdrop, the more instructive story is not a subsidised gigafactory but Accurec Recycling, a family owned firm founded in 1995 with roughly 85 employees across sites in Krefeld and Mulheim an der Ruhr, which has spent over a decade engineering a way to recover lithium domestically rather than importing it.

The firm's CLIMA process is worth understanding because its advantage is selectivity rather than intensity. A thermal pre treatment step converts contained lithium into a water soluble species; thereafter, as development head Simon Bremer puts it, the entire rest of the battery is insoluble in water, except for the lithium. That single differential converts a separation problem normally addressed by hydrometallurgical acid leaching into something closer to controlled washing, with correspondingly lower reagent consumption and effluent burden. Heat liberated during pyrolysis is recaptured and applied to the recrystallisation stage, yielding a roughly 50 percent reduction in energy input and better than 59 percent in carbon dioxide emissions. Recovery presently runs at 50 percent of contained lithium, already compliant with the 2027 European Union threshold, with an internal target above 80 percent by the first quarter of 2027, and a 5.5 million euro expansion intended to take annual throughput from about 5,000 to 20,000 tonnes.

None of this, on its own, reduces European dependence by a single tonne, because the constraint is commercial rather than technical. The prevailing European business model terminates at black mass, the heterogeneous metal bearing powder produced by shredding, which is then shipped to China and Korea for refining. Asian refiners reliably outbid domestic processors for that feedstock, which means European recovery capacity is starved of input at any price it can justify. Brussels reclassified black mass as hazardous waste in December 2025, a move that constrains export in principle, though enforcement is the operative variable and Bremer is explicit that it is currently inadequate.

His policy prescription is accordingly a demand side one: mandate European sourced recycled content in batteries placed on the European market, and enforce the export restriction that already exists on paper. The logic is sound and familiar from other recycling markets, where a technically capable processing sector collapsed for want of guaranteed offtake. It also illustrates a general point about resource security that the gigafactory framing obscures. Sovereignty in materials is not achieved by owning the last step in the chain; it is achieved by controlling the step at which value and optionality concentrate, and in lithium that step is refining, not assembly. A firm of 85 people in Krefeld has identified the right problem. Whether it is permitted to solve it at scale is a question for legislators rather than chemists.