Advancing the Circular Economy in Poland

The EBRD has been working with its long-standing client Elemental Holding to advance the circular economy in Poland. Elemental Holding is a Polish company collecting and recycling spent auto catalysts and e-waste in Poland, other European countries, Middle East and the USA.  

The Bank has supported Elemental with technical assistance and investments to build a new facility that combines recycling of electric vehicle (EV) batteries and spent auto catalysts – enabling the recovery of critical raw materials and platinum group metals (PGMs).   

This process is critical to electrifying the transport sector and developing circular economy practices. The European EV market is projected to double every 3-4 years until 2030 – generating increased demand for lithium-ion batteries and critical raw materials. The process of extracting and refining precious metals in EV batteries comes with high environmental and carbon impacts. In contrast to this increased demand, only about 10% of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries are recycled currently. Using recycled materials to produce lithium-ion batteries reduces greenhouse gas emissions significantly and increases the availability of critical raw materials.     

In 2018, with technical assistance provided by the EBRD, Elemental developed a concept for the co-treatment of spent auto catalysts and lithium-ion batteries. This allows Elemental to integrate these two processes, which helps achieve substantial energy savings. In 2019, Elemental received grants from the European Union via the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) scheme, with support from the European Investment Bank. In 2020, the EBRD supported Elemental with another technical assistance package to develop platinum recovery process in fuel cells and hydrogen applications.   

Following the concept development, the EBRD provided an initial debt of EUR 25 million to support the construction of this innovative recycling facility which combines recycling of EV batteries and spent auto catalysts. In 2023, the EBRD has committed an additional total financing package equivalent to around €120 million. The new financing included US$ 75 million of equity investment through a capital increase, as part of a US$ 290 million private placement alongside the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Polish Development Fund and a separate long-term loan of up to €52 million.   

The plant’s innovative approach to combining the recycling of EV batteries and spent auto catalysts is the first-of-its-kind in the EU and EBRD countries of operations. It aims to produce secondary metals and other materials for reuse in new batteries and various applications, contributing to the circular economy within the e-mobility sector. Its main products will be critical raw materials and platinum group metals like cobalt, nickel, rhodium, platinum, palladium, copper and other non-ferrous metals, as well as recovered electrolytes.   

At full capacity, the plant will recycle approximately 8% of Lithium-ion battery waste produced in Europe by 2025, equivalent to around 4,000 tons, alongside up to 4,000 tons of spent auto catalysts. The plant is expected to achieve a recycling rate of 90% for lithium-ion batteries it processes, surpassing current technologies that operate at about 80% recycling efficiency.  

The project is aligned with the EU Circular Economy Action Plan and supports key EU policy objectives related to the electrification and circularity of the transport sector. It contributes to the European Battery Alliance (EBA) strategic goals by ensuring the availability and sustainability of key raw materials for e-mobility applications and fostering the creation of a cross-value chain ecosystem for batteries, including processing and recycling within the EU.