Antoine Welter, co-founder and CEO of CircuLi-ion, said his startup's upcycling machine can diagnose the condition of a battery in seconds. "We have a good idea of which batteries can be reused and which batteries cannot be reused," he told TechCrunch on Monday.
CircuLi-ion is in the business of rescuing usable battery cells from shredders. The Luxembourg startup's machines use artificial intelligence and an ever-expanding "battery library" to identify batteries visually; separate them from other materials such as plastic casings and PVC sheets; and determine the battery's health.
Batteries in good condition can be used for mobility. Batteries in average condition may be used to store renewable energy. Unqualified batteries will be sent to recycling bins.
Recyclers typically cut the batteries into black blocks and recover the valuable metals through smelting or leaching. During this process, a large number of battery components are mixed together, causing losses.
"We can take away a lot of valuable material that doesn't need to be put in a shredder," Welter said. CircuLi-ion claims that "more than eight out of ten batteries that are scrapped are not actually scrapped."
When asked how exactly the machine determines battery health, Welter was reluctant to answer.
"We collect more than 25 data points per battery through EIS (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy) testing. Based on these data points, we can determine the health of the battery within a 1.2% error margin," Welter said. Testing older batteries is a bit like reading the growth rings of a tree, the CEO explained. Different patterns can be identified to understand the health of the cells. "
CircuLi-ion is charging manufacturers and recyclers a fee to use its machines and software. CircuLi-ion also operates a battery dismantling plant in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Welter is a former B2B investor and advisor, while co-founder and CTO Xavier Kohll helped produce a "soft total artificial heart" at Swiss research university ETH Zurich.
Earlier this month, CircuLi-ion received approximately $4.8 million (€4.5 million) in equity funding led by BonVenture, following approximately $4.2 million (€4 million) in funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator.
The startup said the total seed funding of about $9 million will help it scale its machine-as-a-service business model. CircuLi-ion said it also intends to build "the world's largest" battery recycling data repository.
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