Graphite resilience for lithium-Ion battery anodes through a sustainable European supply chain

Eleonora Calì^a, Abdeltif Lahfid^b, Laurent Guillou Frottier^b, Tommaso Liut^a, Rocio Milagros Renna^a, Laura Cornacchia^a, Nora Ganzinelli^a, Ostap Kostyuk^c

^aRINA Consulting, Italy

^bBUREAU DE RECHERCHES GEOLOGIQUES ET MINIERES, BRGM, 3 avenue Claude-Guillemin, 45060 Orléans, France

^c3. Zavalievsky Graphite (ZG), Sholudenka Street Building 6, 01135 Kyiv, Ukraine

Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2025 Conference (MATSUSFall25)

C2 Solid state batteries: hybrid solid electrolytes, manufacturing strategies and advanced characterization - #SolBat

València, Spain, 2025 October 20th - 24th

Organizers: Marta Haro Remón and Nuria Vicente Agut

Poster, Eleonora Calì, 451
Publication date: 21st July 2025

In pursuit of a sustainable and circular battery economy as required by the 2030 EU Battery Regulation¹, implementing commercially viable methods to upgrade natural graphite to the purity standards required for Li-ion batteries in the European EV supply chains is a sought-after goal.

Compared to synthetic graphite, natural graphite can be made into battery-ready material requiring a fraction of energy input and lower overall processing costs, hence resulting in the production of higher specific capacity material with significantly lower environmental impact.

The Zavalievsky Graphite deposit (Ukrainian Shield) hosts high-quality metamorphic graphite formed predominantly through the regional metamorphism of organic-rich Precambrian sediments. Mineralogical, geochemical, and Raman spectroscopy analyses confirm that well-crystallized graphite in these gneissic rocks derives from such processes, with flake sizes largely exceeding those of hydrothermal origin. The respective thermal role of metamorphism and magmatic intrusions in the genesis of this deposit are, however, unclear, causing limitations in the wider scenario of determining reserve life and nameplate capacity necessary to define the size of this reserve by European standards. Numerical modelling of fluid circulation within permeable fault zones further constrains the geological and thermal parameters controlling mineralization and highlights the influence of dip angle, permeability, and fault zone thickness on ore localization. Simulations of the formation of mineralization in a network of parallel fault zones illustrate similar patterns as those found at Zavalievsky deposit.^2,3

In this work, we demonstrate how the knowledge of the temperature conditions responsible for graphite formation can serve as mappable criteria to assess regional potential for new graphite deposits and to delineate possible extensions of known ore bodies. The novel graphitization model developed in this work is demonstrated for several ores in the investigated site, but also provides a framework for future research into extending and refining the geological and thermodynamic conditions of graphite formation.

Indeed, natural graphite geologically formed under a series of favourable parameters holds important features that greatly enhance the quality of spheroidised material towards the production of higher-quality batteries. Since constraining the geological parameters that favour the development of well-crystallized graphite opens promising industrial applications, we then study under a market perspective how, as well as the possibility of geological modelling to increase extraction, spheroidized natural graphite compares against synthetic graphite over the whole value chain towards the manufacture of batteries. As institutions and private companies alike are pushing towards greater geographical independence and vertical integration, such data can guide the optimization of laboratory and industrial graphitization of natural disordered carbonaceous materials, as well as the synthesis of high-quality graphene for advanced technological applications. Finally, a prototype to enhance the European supply chain and guarantee adherence to existing and upcoming EU regulations is reported.

These results aim at establishing a value chain that facilitates traceability in the retrieval of artificial graphite and its integration with natural graphite. We demonstrate how this prototype enables the replication of such graphite processing chain to strengthen European competitiveness in battery production, targeting sectors such as manufacturers of batteries and battery energy storage systems, producers of battery-powered products (including electric vehicles and electronics), and end-users within industries such as renewable energy for efficiency and storage.

References:

[1] In pursuit of a sustainable and circular battery economy as required by the 2030 EU Battery Regulation1, implementing commercially viable methods to upgrade natural graphite to the purity standards required for Li-ion batteries in the European EV supply chains is a sought-after goal. • Compared to synthetic graphite, natural graphite can be made into battery-ready material requiring a fraction of energy input and lower overall processing costs, hence resulting in the production of higher specific capacity material with significantly lower environmental impact. The Zavalievsky Graphite deposit (Ukrainian Shield) hosts high-quality metamorphic graphite formed predominantly through the regional metamorphism of organic-rich Precambrian sediments. Mineralogical, geochemical, and Raman spectroscopy analyses confirm that well-crystallized graphite in these gneissic rocks derives from such processes, with flake sizes largely exceeding those of hydrothermal origin. The respective thermal role of metamorphism and magmatic intrusions in the genesis of this deposit are, however, unclear, causing limitations in the wider scenario of determining reserve life and nameplate capacity necessary to define the size of this reserve by European standards.. Numerical modelling of fluid circulation within permeable fault zones further constrains the geological and thermal parameters controlling mineralization and highlights the influence of dip angle, permeability, and fault zone thickness on ore localization. Simulations of the formation of mineralization in a network of parallel fault zones illustrate similar patterns as those found at Zavalievsky deposit.2,3 In this work, we demonstrate how the knowledge of the temperature conditions responsible for graphite formation can serve as mappable criteria to assess regional potential for new graphite deposits and to delineate possible extensions of known ore bodies. Since the graphitization model developed here is novel, it also provides a framework for future research into extending and refining the geological and thermodynamic conditions of graphite formation. Indeed, natural graphite geologically formed under a series of favourable parameters holds important features that greatly enhance the quality of spheroidised material towards the production of higher-quality batteries. Since constraining the geological parameters that favour the development of well-crystallized graphite opens promising industrial applications, we then study under a market perspective how, as well asthe possibility of geological modelling to increase extraction, spheroidized natural graphite compares against synthetic graphite over the whole value chain towards the manufacture of batteries. As institutions and private companies alike are pushing towards greater geographical independence and vertical integration, , such data can guide the optimization of laboratory and industrial graphitization of natural disordered carbonaceous materials, as well as the synthesis of high-quality graphene for advanced technological applications. Finally, a prototype to enhance the European supply chain and guarantee adherence to existing and upcoming EU regulations is reported. These results aim at establishing a value chain that facilitates traceability in the retrieval of artificial graphite and its integration with natural graphite We demonstrate how this prototype enables the replication of such graphite processing chain to strengthen European competitiveness in battery production, targeting sectors such as manufacturers of batteries and battery energy storage systems, producers of battery-powered products (including electric vehicles and electronics), and end-users within industries such as renewable energy for efficiency and storage.

[2] . Guillou-Frottier, L., H. Duwiquet, G. Launay, A. Taillefer, V. Roche, G. Link. On the morphology and amplitude of 2D and 3D thermal anomalies induced by buoyancy-driven flow within and around fault zones. Solid Earth, 11, 1571–1595, 2020.

[3] Phillips OM. (1991) Flow and reactions in permeable rocks. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 285

Acknowledgements:

The authors acknowledge the funding received from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101103752 “GR4FITE3- Graphite Resilience For lithium-Ion baTtery anodes through a sustainable European End-to-End supply chain”.

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