Brunp's battery recycling win signals circular-economy inflection
Brunp Recycling's lead inventors Xie Yinghao and Yu Haijun have taken the top prize at the European Inventor Award 2026, winning both the Non-EPO Countries category and the Popular Prize for a directed recycling process that regenerates battery-grade cathode materials directly from spent lithium-ion cells. The ceremony, held in Berlin by the European Patent Office (EPO), placed a Chinese industrial operator at the centre of Europe's most prestigious innovation award at a moment when battery supply-chain security ranks among the continent's foremost strategic anxieties.
The technology targets lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) cathode material, the chemistry that underpins the majority of electric-vehicle battery packs. Conventional recycling routes dissolve spent cells in acid baths before re-synthesising constituent metals, a process that is energy-intensive and chemically wasteful. Brunp's directed recycling approach preserves the functional crystalline structure of the cathode, converting spent cells into reusable battery-grade NCM without full dissolution. According to company data, the process recovers 99.6% of nickel, cobalt and manganese and 96.5% of lithium, reduces acid and alkali consumption by 73%, and cuts the carbon footprint of regenerated cathode material by 61% relative to conventional production.
From niche recycler to CATL ecosystem asset
The company's origins trace to 2005, when Yu Haijun founded Brunp Recycling in response to China's mounting dependence on imported battery minerals. The critical inflection came in 2015 when Brunp was absorbed into the CATL ecosystem. CATL is the world's largest lithium-ion battery manufacturer by installed capacity, supplying virtually every major automotive original equipment manufacturer operating at scale. That integration gave Brunp access to industrial volumes of spent cells and the manufacturing footprint to deploy directed recycling at a speed independent recyclers could not match. Today the company describes itself as a global leader in spent battery recycling and regenerated ternary cathode materials.
Yu Haijun's acceptance remarks pointed explicitly beyond China: "We will keep advancing battery circularity, boost technical collaboration between China and Europe in new energy, and work together to build a sustainable energy future." The framing is deliberate. European battery regulation, including the EU Battery Regulation that entered into force in 2023, is tightening recycled-content mandates for cells placed on the European market. Brunp's European Inventor Award win arrives at precisely the moment when European automotive and battery manufacturers are stress-testing their supply chains against those incoming thresholds.
The convergence read: critical minerals, capital flows and geopolitical friction
The strategic backdrop sharpens the story considerably. The International Energy Agency notes that more than 2,000 GWh of lithium-ion capacity was deployed globally between 2018 and 2023. As that installed base ages, secondary supply of nickel, cobalt, lithium and manganese becomes a structural counterweight to primary mining, which remains concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and South America. A recycling process that recovers materials at near-primary purity from urban waste streams is, in macro terms, a partial answer to the critical-minerals sovereignty problem that both the EU and the United States have spent the past three years trying to solve through subsidies and friend-shoring agreements.
The capital implication is significant for cross-sector investors. Battery recycling has attracted growing interest from infrastructure funds, automotive corporate venture arms and sovereign wealth vehicles precisely because it sits at the intersection of the energy transition and industrial security. Brunp's CATL parentage means it is unlikely to list independently in the near term, but the technology's recognition by the EPO adds intellectual-property credibility that could accelerate licensing conversations with European recyclers and gigafactory operators seeking to meet mandated recycled-content floors. For investors mapping the circular-economy value chain, the award serves as a public validation signal for directed recycling as a commercially mature, not merely aspirational, technology category. The next test will be whether European battery producers can licence or replicate comparable processes domestically, or whether the efficiency gap widens China's structural advantage in battery manufacturing further still.