FCC Ámbito is participating in the RECOBATs project (Development of a Comprehensive Battery Recycling Strategy (PLEC2024-011135)) to find solutions to the challenges facing the electromobility and renewable energy market. The initiative will be developed over four years and has a budget of around €4.5 million, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the State Research Agency (MCIU /AEI /10.13039/501100011033) and ERDF funds from the European Union, through the call for R&D&I Project Funding in strategic lines within the framework of the 2024 Transmisiones initiative, in cooperation with the group of companies receiving funding from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).

RECOBATs aims to develop a comprehensive and versatile strategy for the second life and recycling of lithium-ion batteries at the end of their useful life. To this end, different technologies will be investigated at different stages of the process, from logistics and transport safety to deactivation, automatic disassembly and regeneration into new batteries. In addition, research will be carried out into direct recycling by means of selective separation to recover the elements of the batteries, such as cathode, anode, copper and aluminium; as well as indirect recycling, which will make it possible to recover strategic materials and give them a second life.

The project was launched on 20^th February at the facilities of the CETIM Technological Centre in Culleredo (A Coruña, Spain), the organisation that leads the scientific consortium, which also includes AIMEN, the Iberian Centre for Research in Energy Storage (CIIAE) and the CSIC-CENIM. On the business side, in addition to FCC Ámbito, ECOINTEGRAL is also participating as coordinator, as well as Apria Systems, BeeCYCLE, DGH, Envirobat and Recyclia.

Participation in this project reinforces FCC Ámbito's strategic positioning in the treatment and recycling sector of emerging waste derived from the energy transition and electric mobility. This activity joins other initiatives in the renewables and mobility sector, such as the recycling of wind turbine blades, developed through the subsidiary EnergyLoop created jointly with Iberdrola, and the treatment and recovery of batteries, for the development of which FCC Ámbito also has an alliance with Iberdrola and the raw materials multinational Glencore.

FCC Ámbito is the subsidiary of FCC Servicios Medio Ambiente specialising in the end-to-end management of industrial and commercial waste, by-product recovery and soil decontamination. In total, it boasts 41 treatment centres in Spain and Portugal, managing over 2,000,000 metric tonnes distributed across more than 70 process lines that guarantee the functionality of the facilities.

FCC Servicios Medio Ambiente is the company that backbones the environmental services that the FCC Group has been providing for over 120 years. It currently serves more than 67 million people in 5,400 municipalities around the world and manages 24.7 million tonnes of waste and produces 4.9 million tonnes of secondary raw materials and refuse-derived fuel. The company has more than 800 operational waste management facilities, of which around 220 are environmental compounds dedicated to the treatment and recycling of waste, including 11 waste-to-energy projects with a capacity of 3.2 million tonnes per year and 380 MW of non-fossil electricity.