The German startup Tozero is building a pilot plant for lithium-ion battery recycling at Gendorf Chemical Park in Bavaria. The company recently signed a lease agreement for an existing building to establish the demonstration facility.
The new demonstration plant is set to go into operation later this year. According to Tozero, “it will serve as the technological foundation for the commercial production planned for 2026.” This does not necessarily mean the commercial plant will also be built at the industrial park near the Austrian border, but it has not been ruled out. Gendorf Chemical Park is located in Burgkirchen an der Alz in Germany’s most southern state. The chemical park is one of the largest in Bavaria.
Both the recycling startup and the industrial park management praise their new partnership. “With our technology, we return valuable and energy-intensive materials like lithium and graphite back into the economic cycle. In doing so, we help make Germany and Europe less dependent on raw material imports. We already have many potential buyers for the recycled materials,” says Ksenija Milicevic Neumann, CTO of Tozero. “The commercial demonstration plant at the chemical park is therefore a milestone for us and an important interim step in scaling our technology. The Gendorf Chemical Park, with its ‘plug-and-play’ infrastructure, is the ideal location for us. Here, we can fully concentrate on further developing our technology while InfraServ Gendorf supports us with everything else.”
Christoph von Reden, Managing Director of site operator InfraServ Gendorf, adds: “Tozero strengthens our position as a pioneering location for young, fast-growing companies from future-focused industries. Our infrastructure and our tailored industrial services for the chemical and process industries provide ideal conditions for companies aiming to scale. We use these advantages strategically to attract more innovation drivers to Gendorf.”
Founded in 2022, Tozero has developed a process to efficiently recover high-purity lithium and graphite from used batteries. The company aims to extract over 80 per cent of the lithium from end-of-life batteries, already meeting EU targets set for 2031. Tozero specialises in processing the so-called black mass containing valuable battery active materials and does not handle the mechanical dismantling of entire used batteries.
The collection and pre-treatment of batteries are outsourced to “specialised partners.” This approach, says Tozero, “minimises safety risks, reduces logistics costs, and increases the flexibility and scalability of its recycling process.”
Currently, the company employs around 30 staff from ten nations at its Munich site. It has not disclosed how many will work at Gendorf, but it is planning a “mid-single-digit million euro” investment in the industrial park.
Tozero delivered its first batches of recycled material to European customers in 2024. This lithium was still produced on a small scale at its pilot facilities in Munich. The demonstration plant in Gendorf is intended to increase output.
tozero.solutions
