Germany is accelerating efforts to secure critical raw materials for the energy transition, with construction underway on the €73 million Center for Circular Production of Next Batteries and Fuel Cells (CPC) at TU Braunschweig.
The facility, scheduled to begin operations in 2027, is designed to integrate recycling and production processes into advanced battery manufacturing from the product development stage onward.
The CPC comes at a pivotal time. Under the EU Battery Regulation, by 2031 new electric vehicle batteries sold in Europe must include minimum recycled content—six percent lithium, six percent nickel, and 16 percent cobalt. These thresholds are likely to rise by 2036, pushing industry players to scale up recycling infrastructure and adopt closed-loop systems. Germany, Europe’s largest car market and a growing hub for battery manufacturing, has a strategic interest in reducing dependence on imports of lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which remain highly concentrated in a handful of countries.
Research at the CPC will focus on solid-state batteries, membrane-based flow batteries, fuel cells, and metal-oxygen systems, all of which pose different challenges in terms of material recovery and resynthesis. The facility will host 150 scientists across process engineering, chemistry, manufacturing technology, and logistics to establish circular production pathways that reintroduce recovered raw materials back into the supply chain as high-purity active inputs.
The state of Lower Saxony and the German federal government are covering €65 million of the total budget, with €38.6 million and €26.4 million respectively, while TU Braunschweig contributes €8 million. The new 3,700-square-metre research complex, split between office space and a technical centre, will be located at Braunschweig Research Airport, adjacent to existing infrastructure such as the Battery LabFactory Braunschweig (BLB) and Fraunhofer’s Center for Energy Storage and Systems (ZESS). Proximity to these facilities is intended to create synergies within the region’s broader battery and fuel cell innovation ecosystem.
For policymakers, the project aligns with Germany’s ambition to strengthen its technological sovereignty in the energy sector. As Professor Arno Kwade, CPC spokesperson, noted, the central objective is “the complete integration of recycling and resynthesis processes into the circular production of new generations of batteries and energy converters.” This approach reflects a shift in European industrial strategy from scaling production at any cost to embedding sustainability and resource security into the design of next-generation technologies.
The CPC will operate as part of the wider Braunschweig LabFactories for Batteries and More (BLB+), a collaboration involving TU Braunschweig, TU Clausthal, Leibniz University Hannover, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. This network is expected to expand Germany’s role in advancing circular energy storage and support the regional energy transition strategy in Lower Saxony, where both automotive and energy industries play an outsized role.
