03 · Impact
BRACE turns better decisions into measurable results: more metal recovered, lower costs and a smaller footprint for Europe’s battery recycling plants, validated at industrial scale.
Economic
Environmental
Strategic
Social
For recyclers
Real-time optimisation and proactive management address the issues that keep recovery rates low and operating costs high.
+1–3%
Metal recovery
Worth €25–50 M in additional value, by stabilising the process and its chemistry.
+5%
Net metal production
Higher net metal production and throughput across the flowsheet.
−20%
Operational costs
Through lower energy use, less downtime and less labour time.
−30%
Maintenance costs
By predicting failures before they cause unplanned stops.
€10 M
Saved per avoided event
Cost savings of up to €10 M by predicting accidents or unwanted stops.
−50–60%
Decision latency
Automated, data-driven decisions instead of slow manual loops.
For the planet
Optimised processes use less energy, water and chemicals, and every recovered tonne replaces virgin material: recovered critical raw materials carry 28% lower carbon-equivalent emissions.
−30%
Energy use
Tens of GWh less energy, with a matching cut in operational GHG emissions.
−16%
Chemicals
Plus a 5–8% reduction in acid consumption, based on prior results.
−25%
GHG emissions
Compared with operations without the optimisation apps.
40%
Water recovery
Up to 40% of process water recovered and recycled.
22,000 m³
Water saved
More than 22,000 m³ of water saved per plant, per year.
€1 M
Annual savings
From preventing waste by increasing reclaimed materials.
For Europe
End-of-life batteries are a valuable source of critical and strategic raw materials. Recovering more lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt in Europe reduces dependence on imports from high-risk supply countries and strengthens the EU’s strategic autonomy.
BRACE supports the objectives of the Critical Raw Materials Act by promoting domestic, traceable secondary supply, and helps recyclers meet the EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, including its carbon footprint rules and recycled-content targets.
Demonstrating the platform in Greece, a RIS country, also brings cutting-edge technologies and circular practices to emerging markets in line with EIT goals.
Share of 2030 EU demand coverable by recycling
Li · Lithium
14%
Ni · Nickel
16%
Mn · Manganese
17%
Co · Cobalt
25%
End-of-life batteries combined with gigafactory scrap.
Market
There is currently no commercial industrial AI platform dedicated to battery recycling, and no integrated solution that combines objective-driven AI, digital twins for closed-loop optimisation and strategic planning, and augmented intelligence. BRACE is built to fill that gap.
$2 bn → $10.4 bn
European battery recycling market
2025 to 2034, a compound annual growth rate of 20.1%.
$24.15 bn
Global Li-ion recycling market by 2032
Up from $5.41 bn in 2024, growing at 20.6% a year.
2027
First platform sale
BRACE launches on the market during the project.
€7 M
Projected revenues by 2030
From subscription-based licensing to recycling plants.
Market figures as reported in the BRACE project plan.
For people
Skills gaps are one of the biggest challenges operators report. brains.Expert gives plant staff natural-language access to deep operational knowledge in their own language, speeding up onboarding and building skills in new technologies.
Upskilling starts in the RIS region of Greece and aims to accelerate European and global adoption, while BRACE creates new jobs for developing and upscaling the technology.
3
New jobs
One created in 2026 and two in 2027 for development and upscaling.
S-LCA
Social assessment
Health and safety, operator workload, skills development and societal benefits.
How we measure it
SE&C quantifies and validates the impact of deploying BRACE in battery recycling operations, checking the targets on this page against real data from the Sunlight pilot.
D5.1 · Dec 2026
The dataset that forms the evidence base for evaluating BRACE’s environmental, economic and social performance.
D5.2 · Aug 2027
Energy use, chemical consumption, resource recovery, operational costs and overall environmental impact of BRACE-enabled processes.
D5.3 · Dec 2027
Workforce health and safety, operator workload, skills development and societal benefits, with recommendations for responsible replication.
Discover what BRACE could mean for recovery, costs and emissions at your site.