Green Science Alliance opens battery recycling lab in Biel, Switzerland

Green Science Alliance has opened a battery recycling laboratory at the Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne (SIPBB) in the canton of Bern. The Japanese chemical and greentech company confirmed the inauguration on 19 October 2026. The site will work on recovering cathode material from used lithium-ion cells for direct reuse in new batteries.

The partner in the venture is the Swiss Battery Technology Center, which operates at the same innovation park. The stated aim is a direct-recycling route: cathode material comes out of end-of-life cells and goes back into new ones.

What is actually new here?

The process skips the conventional intermediate step. Today, most recyclers shred black mass and dissolve it into individual metals — lithium, nickel, cobalt — before re-synthesising cathode material. Green Science Alliance wants to eliminate that detour. Direct cathode-to-cathode recovery, if it works at scale, cuts reprocessing cost and energy use.

The company has not published throughput targets, recovery rates or a timeline for industrial-scale operation. The announcement describes a laboratory. It is a research opening, not a production plant. Capacity claims, at this stage, do not exist to verify.

Who is Green Science Alliance?

The firm is a Japanese chemicals and greentech developer headquartered in Kawanishi City. It works across nanomaterials, and has previously announced research lines in next-generation batteries, including lithium-sulfur and rechargeable variants. Its European presence in Biel marks a physical foothold on the continent.

Biel/Bienne sits in a Swiss battery-manufacturing cluster. SIPBB hosts the Swiss Battery Technology Center, which gives the Japanese firm direct access to local cell-development expertise and pilot infrastructure. The park structure, backed by the canton of Bern, exists to pull applied research and industry together.

What to watch next

Watch whether the lab publishes recovery rates for cathode material reused in working cells. That is the metric that separates a recycling claim from a recycling result. The first validation data — purity levels, cycle-life performance of cells built with recovered cathode — will signal whether the direct route can leave the lab. A pilot-line announcement or an OEM cell-supplier partnership would mark the next real milestone. Until then, this is an intention with a room, not a process with a plant.

By Amara Osei, Autoplant Brief