cylib Battery Recycling Project Gains EU Strategic Status

Battery recycling company cylib announced on October 14, 2026, that the European Commission selected its battery recycling project as a Strategic Project under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The designation centers on the company’s hydrometallurgical processing facility in Dormagen, Germany, which is under construction and designed to process up to 140,000 electric vehicle batteries per year.

The Commission selects Strategic Projects based on their potential to strengthen Europe’s supply of strategic raw materials and reduce dependence on individual third countries. The designation recognizes the project’s expected contribution to a more resilient and circular European raw materials supply. The project is intended to contribute to the CRMA’s 2030 objective of meeting at least 25% of the European Union’s annual consumption of strategic raw materials through recycling.

The Dormagen facility is part of cylib’s integrated recycling network in Germany. Research and development is conducted at the company’s Aachen headquarters, while its Wernberg-Köblitz site in Bavaria provides mechanical processing and battery pre-processing capabilities. Dormagen is intended to handle industrial-scale hydrometallurgical processing and return recovered materials to industrial use in Europe.

According to cylib, its water-based OLiC, or Optimized Lithium and Graphite Recovery, technology can recover raw materials from battery packs, black mass and production scrap. The company reports recovery rates of more than 90% for lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and manganese, along with a carbon footprint 80% lower than primary extraction.

cylib said the Strategic Project status gives partners greater confidence in a European route from used batteries to recovered raw materials. The company was founded in Aachen in 2022 and emerged from research conducted at RWTH Aachen University.

Source: cylib.de