Above all, representatives of many well-known manufacturers including Renault, Ford, Duracell, Saft, Nissan, Apple, Toyota, Honda, Volvo, FDK Corporation, Volkswagen, Robert Bosch and Fiat Chrysler were present in Lyon this year. “The broad spectrum of participants clearly shows the steadily growing interest in battery recycling – not only from the recycling sector itself, but also increasingly from various industries,” said Jean-Pol Wiaux, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the ICBR, summarising the event.
The ICBR had a wide range of conference topics to offer: 30 presentations, two panel discussions and one workshop were on the conference program as well as two plant tours to the companies SNAM and MTB Recycling and, last but not least, a top-class exhibition.
The congress was opened by Ghislain Lescuyer, CEO of the French battery manufacturer Saft. He spoke about the importance of batteries for the renewable energy market and the role of electrical energy storage. The keynote speech by Jean-Denis Curt, Recycling & Circular Economy Unit Manager at car manufacturer Renault, also met with great interest. He described how recycling management is implemented at Renault and what the goals of the car manufacturer are. The latest figures and trends on the lithium battery market, presented by battery expert Christophe Pillot, Director of AVICENNE ENERGY, were also eagerly awaited.
Other presentations dealt with the aspects of transportation and safety as well as the availability of critical raw materials. For example, George A. Kerchner of the US company PRBA presented the complexities of transporting new, refurbished and waste lithium batteries. Stéphane Bourg from the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission spoke about the raw materials required for the strategic EU industrial value chain for batteries.
Another key focus of the conference was on batteries for electric vehicles. Prof. Bernd Friedrich of the IME Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling Institute at RWTH Aachen University in Germany presented the impact of process chain design on recycling efficiency with both simulation and practical results. Renata Arsenault from Ford Motor Co. spoke about the OEM perspective on battery recycling in the new mobility era. The presentations were complemented by presentations on the latest technological developments as well as country reports on battery collection systems in France and the current state of electric mobility in Norway.
