In STREAMS, UOulu will lead Work Package 3 and develop sustainable hydrometallurgical processes for the recovery of critical and strategic metals and will also synthesise NMC powders from the recycled precursors (Work Package 4).
Meet the faces behind the project
- Professor Ulla Lassi is the Head of research unit of Sustainable chemistry.
Her research areas involve inorganic material chemistry in industrial applications, esp. lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery chemicals. She has over 225 peerly reviewed scientific publications. As a professor, she has supervised 28 PhD theses and more than 120 M.Sc theses. She has been the principal investigator of over 30 research projects. Professor Lassi is also an active member in several scientific and educational societies and committees. She has several positions of trust, e.g. in international battery associations. Lassi has also been awarded Tandem Industry Academy Professor in the field of battery chemistry for 2023-2025.
In STREAMS, Lassi is leader for WP3. - Dr. Tao Hu, Associate Professor, has long-term experience in batteries research. In this project, she will take care of the characterization of materials using advanced characterization tools e.g. XRD, XPS, FESEM, EPMA, and TEM.
- Researcher Toni Kauppinen, M.Sc., has a background in hydrometallurgical recycling of industrial side-streams. In STREAMS, Toni is responsible for recovery of lithium from industrial sources.
- Dr. Pekka Tynjälä, Associate professor, has over 15 years competence in battery chemicals coprecipitation. His research activities include the development of hydrometallurgical processes such as co-precipitation of precursor materials for lithium and sodium ion batteries and leaching of metallic raw materials for the preparation of battery grade metal sulfate solutions. In STREAMS, Pekka is responsible for the synthesis of NMC cathode materials using recycled material flows.
- Researcher Akseli Kumpula, M.Sc., has background in the hydrothermal synthesis of precursor cathode active materials. In STREAMS, he will work on the development of sustainable hydrometallurgical processes for the recovery of critical metals (e.g., lithium) from industrial sources.
About University of Oulu
University of Oulu, founded in 1958, is one of the largest universities in Finland. As an international research and innovation university, University of Oulu is committed to multidisciplinary basic research and academic education. It boasts over 16,000 students across eight faculties and approximately 2,800 employees.
Research unit of Sustainable chemistry is an active and versatile research unit in the Faculty of Technology at the University Oulu. It was created in 2015 with a mission to study material chemistry challenges in a sustainable way, and to respond efficiently to pressing societal challenges by providing sustainable material and process chemistry solutions for energy storage. Current 62 employees of the unit are response in research and education in the field of chemistry. Research unit has active company collaboration.
Sustainability is the key demand for the battery value chain
“Development of more sustainable solutions in the battery value chain is a key to promote green transition. In STREAMS, University of Oulu will contribute to this challenge by developing new battery cathode active materials using abundant raw materials and increased number of secondary materials from spent batteries or metal refining processes. Thus, we are contributing to battery value chain by strengthening our core competence in the field, and by improving the circularity of the European battery materials ecosystem. We hope that STREAMS will provide novel technological solutions and several high-quality scientific publications” – Ulla Lassi (Principal investigator, University of Oulu)
