Lithium-ion batteries have become an integral part of e­veryday life. The number of used batteries is correspondingly high. They contain considerable amounts of important raw materials such as graphite. Recycling this mineral for being reused for new batteries with the same performance is an important goal. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm and the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have now demonstrated that a graphite recycling technology is successful as intended. In tests, the purified graphite showed excellent capacity retention com­parable to pristine commercial anode-grade graphite.

The EXCITE project (Electron and X-ray microscopy community for structural and chemical imaging techniques for Earth materials) has been bringing together the most important national and regional electron and X-ray microscopy facilities with European researchers from academia and industry at European level for four years in order to ensure their optimal use and joint development. Funding for the EXCITE network, in which the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) of the HZDR also provides its equipment, has now been extended under the name EXCITE² for four years by the European Union (EU). With a clear focus on the EU's sustainability goals, the microscopy equipment will now be available to researchers from all disciplines from April 2024 instead of just geoscientists.

The Cen­ter of Interface Studies (CIS) is a joint initiative of three HZDR institutes by combining the top-notch interface sciences competence: Helmholtz-Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF), Institute of Fluid Dynamics (IFD) and Institute of Resource Ecology (IRE). The kick off event gives an initial insight into the planned joint research.

The BHT - FREIBERGER UNIVERSITÄTSFORUM serves the professional exchange between science, economy and society. In se­veral specialist colloquia, participants discuss issues relating to resource extraction and processing, and they learn about current research from all faculties. The recomine alliance will present itself in a specialist colloquium on June 5, 2024.

One of the challenges confronting our society today is the sustainable use of our resources. The concept of a circular economy, in which products, materials and componen­ts are reused and recycled within a loop, thus generating hardly any waste, is intended to meet this challenge. In order to reco­ver raw materials of all kinds (e.g. rare earth elements) in an energy-efficient and function-preserving way, it is necessary to develop a new generation of adaptive and flexible ­techno­logies and digital platforms for the processing and recycling. FlexiPlant will be a globally unique research infrastructure, to develop and test scientific models, methods and ­techno­logies for the mechanical processing of raw material in a pilot scale. The digitalization and automation of the processing system are required for transferring the processes to industrial scale. As an open transfer platform, FlexiPlant will provide a variety of research and cooperation opportunities for interested partners from academia, industry and society.