International Process Metallurgy Symposium (IPMS2025)

The International Process Metallurgy Symposium (IPMS2025), organised by Aalto University, took place from 27 to 28 October 2025 in Espoo, Finland. It gathered over 150 attendees from academia, industry and other stakeholder interested in metallurgy, battery recycling, precious and critical materials, materials circularity and sustainability.

During this event, Diana Arellano (Aalto University) had the opportunity to hold the session "LCA of a hydrometallurgical battery recycling flowsheet", where she presented some results of the RESPECT project, including a life cycle analysis of a hydrometallurgical-based battery recycling flowsheet. This involved a description of the LCA modelling via HSC Process software that allows the simulation of novel recovery routes to be further studied to understand their hotspots and limitations. The role of increased electrification of recycling processes was also highlighted and the issue of sodium sulfate waste as a key challenge of battery recycling that needs to be addressed. The case study presented was based on a possible future low-carbon footprint investigated as part of the RESPECT project.

This presentation outlined the importance of critical metal resources for the Green Transition and the need to utilise spent battery waste in an efficient manner as possible. In particular, the work related to the RESPECT project (WP3 and WP5) was highlighted as an example of what future Hydrometallurgical metal recovery routes for battery recycling and what challenges remain in terms of reducing potential wastes and associated environmental impacts.

You can learn more about the event here.