Nobian (Utrecht, the Netherlands) has initiated the LiSA consortium together with Back to Battery, the University of Twente and Demcon Suster. The Institute for Sustainable Process Technology (ISPT) will coordinate the pilot project and disseminate the obtained insights throughout its network. The goal is to scale a circular, low-carbon route for lithium refining in Europe. Following the Dutch government’s decision to award the project a €2 million grant through the TKI Energy programme, the partners will start a three-year pilot project in the Netherlands with a collective investment of €3.6 million.
LiSA will refine lithium from European sources, including geothermal brines and recycled batteries, into battery-grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate through a more energy-efficient process. At the heart of the project is Nobian’s crystallization technology, which combines electrochemistry with salt-based crystallization to convert lithium chloride into high-quality battery materials. In this new, patented process, the lithium chloride solution is combined with caustic soda and passed through two crystallization steps, in which lithium hydroxide and sodium chloride are separated. The sodium chloride is then reused in Nobian’s existing chlor-alkali electrolyzers to produce caustic soda, which is returned to the crystallization process.
Source: Nobian
Compared with conventional lithium refining methods, the process is expected to use around 50% less energy and reduce CO₂ emissions by around 50%. It is also expected to be more cost-efficient, use less water, and produce fewer waste streams than conventional lithium production. Within the project, a pilot-scale research facility will be developed to test different sources of lithium feedstock, optimize process conditions and assess how impurities in recycled lithium streams can be effectively managed.
Laying the foundation for virgin and circular lithium in Europe
Lithium is essential for electric mobility, energy storage and the broader energy transition. Yet Europe still depends heavily on imports to produce lithium batteries, making the battery chemicals value chain vulnerable to geopolitical risks, price volatility and environmental impacts. In addition, valuable materials from used batteries are not yet sufficiently recovered.
The LiSA project addresses this by testing recycled lithium from end-of-life batteries directly in the refining process, integrating lithium from European sources provided by Back to Battery and connecting refining and recycling in one circular value chain. In this way, LiSA helps lay the foundation for a circular lithium ecosystem in the Netherlands and Europe, supporting greater strategic independence and a more sustainable battery industry.
Coert van Lare, Director Innovation Program Renewable & Circular at Nobian, says: “LiSA leverages Nobian’s electrochemistry and crystallization capabilities to help address one of Europe’s key raw material challenges. Together with strong partners, we are scaling a more energy-efficient route to sustainable, battery-grade lithium that can reduce CO₂ emissions, support EU critical raw materials ambitions and strengthen Europe’s circular battery value chain.”
Markus Mingenbach, Senior Vice President Chlor-Alkali & Chloromethanes at Nobian, adds: “LiSA brings our Grow Greener Together approach directly into one of Europe’s most strategic growth markets. It applies Nobian’s salt chemistry, chlor-alkali expertise and industrial capabilities to sustainable battery materials. This creates a scalable pathway into the battery chemicals value chain, a strategic growth area that builds directly on our existing business. It also positions Nobian to support a lower-carbon, more competitive and strategically independent battery value chain in Europe.”
Steven Lans, CEO of Back to Battery, comments: “We have found real chemistry with Nobian, literally. Both our processes run on similar chemistry, which gives us strong synergy. We recover critical raw materials from end-of-life batteries and put them back into new batteries, without any loss of performance, while also closing the loop on reagents. This collaboration demonstrates how innovative chemistry can reinforce and grow the Netherlands’ existing chemical clusters for the next generation of sustainable industry.”
Building Europe’s battery chemicals value chain
The LiSA project is part of Nobian’s broader battery chemicals programme, in which the company explores how its core competencies in electrochemistry, crystallization, salt chemistry and industrial process technology can support the development of sustainable battery materials in Europe. Alongside lithium initiatives such as LiSA, Nobian is also involved in partnerships including SLDBatt and STARBATCH, which focus on sodium-based battery technologies. Together, these activities reflect Nobian’s ambition to help build a more circular, low-carbon and strategically resilient battery value chain by working with partners to accelerate the availability of sustainable, battery-grade chemicals in Europe.
The LiSA consortium brings together industry, technology and research partners to scale circular lithium refining in Europe. Nobian contributes its electrochemistry, crystallization and industrial scale-up capabilities, using its technology to convert lithium chloride from various sources into battery-grade lithium products. Back to Battery supplies recycled lithium-containing brines from end-of-life batteries to test the process with recycled raw materials. Demcon Suster is contracted to design and build the laboratory-scale research facility. The University of Twente will support modelling, optimization and scale-up studies, while ISPT coordinates the project and makes the insights accessible to other industry parties. Together, the partners will test lithium from geothermal sources and recycled batteries, produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide and optimize the process for scale-up, enabling future large-scale battery chemicals production in the Netherlands and Europe.