EP4728686A1

EP4728686A1 - Apparatuses and methods for determining chemical compositions of materials resulting from recycling processes

Info

Publication number: EP4728686A1
Application number: EP24728064.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Arunav MISHRA; Christoph Klein; Dennis Haardt; Fabian Seeler; Henning SCHWABE; Holger Kuhlmann; Sebastian BOJARSKI; Wolfgang Rohde
Original assignee: BASF SE
Current assignee: BASF SE
Priority date: 2023-06-14
Filing date: 2024-05-28
Publication date: 2026-04-22
Also published as: CN121420521A; WO2024256162A1

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for determining chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof and a respective computer-implemented method and computer program element, an apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof and a respective computer-implemented method and computer program element, and a use of the chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of a recycled material as generated by the apparatuses and methods disclosed herein to monitor and/or control the feed of the recycled material to a recycling step of a recycling process.

Description

APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONS OF MATERIALS RESULTING FROM RECYCLING PROCESSES

TECHNICAL FIELD

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

End-of-life products may be recycled to reattain materials which can be used to manufacture new products. For instance, end-of-life batteries may be recycled to reattain metals, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese, which can be used to manufacture new cathode active material present within battery cells. Recycling of end-of-life products may include separation of materials included in the product or components of the product. The efficiency of recycling processes may be impacted by materials present within the product, the components or recycled materials obtained by performing one or more recycling step(s) of the recycling process. For instance, the presence of impurities in various oxidation states may impact the efficiency of the separation of various metals, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese, from black mass material obtained from mechanical treatment of batteries or components thereof. Knowledge of the material composition of recycled materials may hence serve to operate recycling processes of end-of-life products more efficiently.

Hence, there is a need to provide reliable data on the material composition of recycled materials.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed is an apparatus for determining chemical composition data associated with a chemical composition of a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, the apparatus comprising: a decentral product identifier providing unit configured to provide decentral product identifier(s) associated with the product or the part thereof, or to provide decentral recycled material identifier(s) associated with the recycled material, a material data providing unit configured to obtain material data associated with one or more material(s) used to produce the product or the part thereof from a decentral network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), wherein the material data is gathered by the decentral network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), a data providing unit configured to provide operation data associated with an operation of the recycling step, a chemical composition determination unit configured to determine chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data, and configured to provide the determined chemical composition data.

Further disclosed is an apparatus for determining chemical composition data associated with a chemical composition of a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with at least part of a product, the apparatus comprising: one or more computing nodes; and one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, cause the apparatus to perform the following steps: provide decentral product identifier(s) associated with the product or to provide decentral recycled material identifier(s) associated with the recycled material, obtain material data associated with one or more material(s) used to produce the product from a decentral network participant node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), wherein the material data is gathered by a decentral data consuming network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), provide operation data associated with an operation of the recycling step, determine chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data, provide the determined chemical composition data.

Further disclosed is a computer-implemented method for determining chemical composition data associated with a chemical composition of a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with at least part of a product, the method comprising the steps of: providing decentral product identifier(s) associated with the product or to provide decentral recycled material identifier(s) associated with the recycled material, obtaining material data associated with one or more material(s) used to produce the product from a decentral network participant node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), wherein the material data is gathered by a decentral data consuming network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), providing operation data associated with an operation of the recycling step, determining chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data, providing the determined chemical composition data.

Further disclosed is an apparatus for operating or controlling a feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, wherein the recycled material is obtained by performing a recycling step on the product or the part thereof, the apparatus comprising: one or more computing nodes; and one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, cause the apparatus to perform the following steps: provide target composition data and recycled material availability data associated with the recycled material, provide - based on the recycled material availability data - chemical composition data associated with the recycled material, wherein the chemical composition data is determined with the apparatuses for determining chemical composition data disclosed herein or by the computer- implemented methods for determining chemical composition data disclosed herein, determine feed data for the subsequent recycling step based on the provided target composition data and the chemical composition data, operate or control the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step based on the determined feed data.

Further disclosed is a computer-implemented method for operating or controlling a feed of a recycled material to a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, wherein the recycled material is obtained by performing a recycling step on the product or the part thereof, the method comprising the steps of: providing chemical composition data associated with the recycled material as determined with the apparatuses for determining chemical composition data disclosed herein or the computer- implemented methods for determining chemical composition data as disclosed herein, providing target composition data and material availability data associated with the recycled material, determining feed data for the recycling step based on the provided chemical composition data, target composition data and material availability data, operating or controlling the feed of recycled material to the recycling step based on the determined feed data.

Further disclosed is a use of the chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of a recycled material as generated by the apparatus for determining chemical composition data as disclosed herein or according to the computer-implemented methods for determining chemical composition data as disclosed herein to monitor and/or control the feed of the recycled material to a recycling step of a recycling process.

Further disclosed is a computer element, such as a computer readable storage medium, a computer program or a computer program product, comprising instructions, which when executed by a computing node or a computing system, direct the computing node or computing system to carry out the steps of the methods as disclosed herein.

Further disclosed is a computer element, such as a computer readable storage medium, a computer program or a computer program product, comprising instructions, which when executed by the apparatuses or systems as disclosed herein, direct these apparatuses or systems to carry out steps these apparatuses or systems are configured to execute.

Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the apparatuses, the methods, the uses and computer elements lined out above and below. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples.

Embodiments

The apparatuses, methods and computer elements disclosed herein provide an efficient and reliable way for determining the chemical composition of recycled materials obtained from performing at least one recycling step of a recycling process on an end-of-life product or a part thereof. By using the linkage between the decentral product identifier and decentral material identifiers associated with materials used to produce the product or the part thereof, material data associated with said materials can be efficiently and securely retrieved from decentral data providing network nodes associated with said material data. Likewise, the linkage between the decentral product identifier and the decentral recycled material identifier can be used for this purpose. By using operation data associated with the recycling step, the yield of recycled material or chemical compounds contained in said recycled material, such as metals, can be considered, hence allowing to increase the accuracy of the determined chemical composition data. Reliably determining the chemical composition data from material data associated with materials used to produce the product allows to avoid time consuming analysis of the chemical composition via sampling. Since sampling is highly dependent on the homogeneity of the recycled material composition, analysis of the chemical composition of inhomogeneous recycled material via sampling may result in unreliable results. In contrast, determining the chemical composition data from material data associated with materials used to produce the product or part thereof allows to reliably and quickly determine the chemical composition of recycled material produced from said products or part thereof, irrespective of the homogeneity of the recycled material. The determined chemical composition data of the recycled materials, such as black mass material, may be used to tailor inputs of recycled material to subsequent recycling steps to optimize the quality of the recyclate resulting from said subsequent recycling step, to fulfill emission targets of the subsequent recycling step or of the recyclate resulting from said step, and to optimize recycling efficiency of the subsequent recycling step. For example, different recycled materials having a different chemical composition may be mixed to maximize the recycling efficiency of the subsequent recycling step. Hence, the determined chemical composition data may be used to determine feed data for a subsequent recycling step which allows to optimize recyclate quality, fulfil emission targets and/or optimize recycling efficiency. In addition, more flexibility may be achieved through tailoring inputs of recycled material to subsequent recycling step(s). For example, tailoring inputs allows to overcome shortages of recycled materials having a chemical composition required to efficiently perform the subsequent recycling step, to adapt the chemical composition of the recycled material such that emission targets, recycling rates and recycling efficiency are fulfilled, and to adapt the chemical composition of the recycled material such that emissions associated with the subsequent recycling step(s) are reduced.

It is an object of the present invention to provide reliable data on the material composition of recycled materials produced from end-of-life products or parts thereof. It is a further object of the present invention to optimize the recycling efficiency of the recycling step processing the recycled material. These and other objects, which become apparent upon reading the following description, are solved by the subject matters of the independent claims. The dependent claims refer to preferred embodiments of the invention.

In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be outlined by ways of examples. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to said embodiments and/or examples.

In an embodiment, the product may be any end product that contains materials which can be recycled. The product may be an end-of-life product. End-of-life products may be products which no longer possess properties required for their use. End-of-life products may be products disposed in the waste. A part of the product may include at least one component of the product. The at least one component may include a single component or multiple components of a single product type or multiple product types. The at least one component may include any component or any combination of components of the product.

In an embodiment, a recycling process may include one or more recycling steps performed to produce any recycled material usable to produce new products from the end product. The recycling process may be performed using the end product. The recycling process may be performed using one or more components of the end product. The recycling process may be performed using end-of-life products. The recycling process may be performed using one or more component(s) of end-of-life products. The new product may be of the same product type than the end-of-life product. The new product may be of a different product type than the end-of-life product. Recycling steps may include collecting, dismantling, sorting, mechanical treatment, chemical treatment, thermal treatment or any other steps for transforming end products into recycled material. In an embodiment, the recycled material may be any material output at any process step in the recycling process of products. The recycled material may comprise any component of the product to be recycled in any form. For instance, the recycled material may include one or more components of the product to be further processed in the recycling process. The recycled material may contain chemical compounds contained in the product. The recycled material may contain chemical compounds produced from chemical compounds contained in the product during one or more recycling steps.

In an embodiment, the decentral product identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the product or a part thereof, and optionally a data owner. The decentral product identifier may connect a physical entity of the product or part thereof to a digital twin of the product. The digital twin may be digital representation or digital version of the physical entity of the product or the part thereof and may contain product data describing the physical entity of the product or the part thereof. The product data may be contained in one or more data sets (also denoted as digital twin data set(s)). The product data may include data related to the use of the product or part thereof, data related to the production of the product or part thereof, one or more product/component identifiers, the product/component name, the chemical composition of the product or components thereof, measured and/or determined chemical and/or physical properties of the product or part thereof, emission data of the product or part thereof, recyclate content data of the product or part thereof, bio-based content data of the product or part thereof, renewable content data of the product or part thereof, product declaration data, product safety data, certificate of analysis data associated with the product or part thereof, certificates associated with the product or part thereof, or a combination thereof. The decentral product identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) or one or more Digital Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The one or more DID(s) and/or UUID(s) may be associated with the digital twin of the product or the part thereof. The one or more DID(s) and/or UUID(s) may further be associated with the product or the part thereof. The decentral product identifier may be generated by the owner of the product data or on behalf of the owner of the product data. The decentral product identifier may include authentication information. Via the decentral product identifier and its unique association with the digital twin of the product or part thereof (and hence with the physical entity of the product or part thereof) and optionally the data owner, access to the digital twin and hence the product data may be controlled by the data owner. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the decentral product identifier(s) in implementations as controlled by the data owner. The decentral product identifier may be connected to access data for accessing product data or parts thereof via a decentral network.

The decentral product identifier may include or be associated with one or more identifier(s) used in a decentral network and allowing for exchange of product data via the decentral network. For instance, the decentral product identifier may include or be associated with identifier(s) of digital twin data sets. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral product identifier and optionally identifier(s) included in or be associated with said decentral product identifier for participant nodes of the decentral network, authentication of participant nodes of the decentral network and/or authorization of data transfers via a peer-to-peer communication between participant nodes of the decentral network.

In an embodiment, the decentral product identifier may be associated with one or more decentral material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the product. This allows to determine the materials used to produce the product based on the decentral material identifier(s). The decentral product identifier may be associated with decentral material identifier(s) of component(s) used to produce the product.

In an embodiment, the decentral product identifier may be associated with the decentral recycled material identifier associated with the recycled material produced by performing a recycling step of a recycling process using the product or the part thereof. This allows to track the products or parts thereof used to produce the recycled material.

In an embodiment, the decentral recycled material identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the recycled material, and optionally a data owner. The decentral recycled material identifier may connect a physical entity of the recycled material to a digital twin of the recycled material. The digital twin may be digital representation or digital version of the physical entity of the recycled material and may contain recycled material data describing the physical entity of the recycled material. The recycled material data may be contained in one or more data sets (also denoted as digital twin data set(s)). The recycled material data may include data related to the use of the recycled material, data related to the production of the recycled material, one or more recycled material identifiers, the recycled material name, the chemical composition of the recycled material, measured and/or determined chemical and/or physical properties of the recycled material, emission data of the recycled material, recycled material declaration data, recycled material safety data, certificate of analysis data associated with the recycled material, certificates associated with the recycled material or a combination thereof. The decentral recycled material identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID(s)) or one or more Digital Identifier(s) (DID(s)). The one or more DID(s) and/or UUID(s) may be associated with the digital twin of the recycled material. The one or more DID(s) and/or UUID(s) may further be associated with the recycled material. The decentral recycled material identifier may be generated by the owner of the recycled material data or on behalf of the owner of the recycled material data. The decentral recycled material identifier may include authentication information. Via the recycled material product identifier and its unique association with the digital twin of the recycled material (and hence with the physical entity of the recycled material) and optionally the data owner, access to the digital twin and hence the recycled material data may be controlled by the data owner. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the decentral recycled material identifier(s) in implementations as controlled by the data owner. The decentral recycled material identifier may be connected to access data for accessing recycled material data or parts thereof via a decentral network.

The decentral recycled material identifier may include or be associated with one or more identifier(s) used in a decentral network and allowing for exchange of recycled material data via the decentral network. For instance, the decentral recycled material identifier may include or be associated with identifier(s) of digital twin data sets.

In an embodiment, the decentral recycled material identifier may be associated with the decentral product identifier associated with the product or the part thereof used to produce the recycled material. This allows to track the products or parts thereof used to produce the recycled material.

In an embodiment, material(s) used to produce the product may include any material(s) used during the production of the product. This may include raw materials, intermediate products, parts, components and component assemblies. For instance, material(s) used to produce a product may include chemical raw materials, chemical intermediate products, chemical products, parts produced from said chemical products, components produced from said parts and component assemblies produced from said components. For the product being a battery, materials used to produce the battery may include metal precursors like metal sulfates and metal hydroxides, anode and cathode active materials, electrolytes, battery cells, battery packs and battery modules.

In an embodiment, the decentral network node gathering the material data may be part of a decentral network. The decentral network may be a decentral peer-to-peer communication network. The decentral network may include decentral network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem and may be configured to perform data transactions. The product ecosystem may include the product production. The product ecosystem may include the product recycling. The network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem may be associated with raw chemical product suppliers, intermediate chemical products manufacturers, intermediate part manufacturers, component manufacturers, component assembly manufacturers, end product manufacturers and participants of the recycling process. The product production may include supply chains for producing the materials used to produce the product. The data transactions may be based on a transaction protocol including authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer communication between decentral participant network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s), such as decentral product identifier(s), decentral recycled material identifier(s) and/or decentral material identifier(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s) may be accessible by the decentral participant network node(s). The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network.

In an embodiment, the decentral network node gathering the material data may be an operating node of the decentral network. The decentral network node may be part of the infrastructure of the decentral network. The decentral network node may not be associated with a participant of the product ecosystem, such as raw chemical product suppliers, intermediate chemical products manufacturers, intermediate part manufacturers, component manufacturers, component assembly manufacturers, end product manufacturers.

In an embodiment, the chemical composition data includes data on one or more chemical compound(s) present within the recycled material. Data on one or more chemical compounds may include the name of the chemical compound(s), the type of the chemical compound(s), chemical compound identifier(s), relative or absolute amounts of chemical compound(s) or a combination thereof. The type of the chemical compound(s) may include compound specifications like metal, metal salt, polymer, monomer, organic compound, inorganic compound or combinations thereof. The chemical compound identifier may include a CAS number or any other identifier uniquely identifying the chemical compound. Relative amounts may be given in % by weight or % by volume, based on the total weight of the recycled material. Absolute amounts may be given in any metric unit suitable to designate an amount, such as gram, mol, kilogram or ton.

In an embodiment, the at least one decentral product identifier is provided from a sensor reading an identifier element physically connected to the product or the part thereof. In an embodiment, the at least one decentral recycled material identifier is provided from a sensor reading an identifier element physically connected to the recycled material. The identifier element may include any physical arrangement that associates the decentral product identifier with the product or part thereof or that associates the decentral recycled material identifier with the recycled material. The identifier element may comprise a passive or active element, e.g. QR-code, RFID-tag, but is not limited thereto. The identifier element may be a physical identifier physically connected to the product, such as the housing of the product, and/or at least one component of the product, such as a product module. The identifier element may be a physical identifier physically connected to the recycled material, such as the packaging containing the recycled material. The identifier element may include markers embedded in materials, a bar code, a QR-Code, a tag like a RFID tag or similar physical arrangement that allows to digitally identify the product, at least one component of the product or the recycled material. The identifier element may uniquely identify the product, the component(s) or the recycled material.

In an embodiment, gathering the material data includes determining decentral material identifier(s) associated with the material(s) used to produce the product or the part thereof based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or decentral recycled material identifier(s) and gathering the material data from decentral data providing network node(s) associated with said material data using at least part of the determined decentral material identifiers. Each decentral data providing network node may be associated with a data owner of the respective material data. The material data owner may be the producer of the material. The material data owner may be the owner of the material associated with said material data. The decentral data providing network node(s) may be associated with participants of the product ecosystem. For example, the decentral data providing network node(s) may be associated with producers of materials used to produce the product. The decentral data providing network node(s) may be associated with the provider of material(s) used to produce the product. The decentral data providing network node(s) may be associated with providers of raw materials or intermediate products used to produce the material(s) which in turn are used to produce the product. By way of identity-based access using decentral material identifier(s), material data may be provided under control of the data owner of the respective material data. In such embodiment, the material data may be provided by a storage environment associated with the decentral data providing network node. The storage environment may be under control of the material data owner. Such storage environment may by accessible via the respective decentral data providing network node based on an authentication and/or authorization process. The computer-executable instructions accessing the material data based on the respective decentral material identifier may initiate data transfer. The use of decentral data providing network nodes enables the owner of the material data to control usage of material data. In addition, secure data sharing or exchanging across participants of the product ecosystem can be enabled.

The material data may include measured and/or determined data. The data may be measured and/or determined prior to, during and/or after production of the material used to produce the product or the part thereof. The measured and/or determined data may be stored in a storage environment, such as the storage environment accessible via the decentral data providing network node associated with the material data.

The decentral material identifier(s) may be determined by the decentral network node. The decentral material identifier(s) may be determined by a further decentral network node being in communication with the decentral network node gathering the material data. For instance, the further decentral network node may determine decentral material identifier(s) and may provide the determined decentral material identifier(s) to the decentral network node. The decentral network node may then gather material data based on the provided decentral material identifier(s).

The decentral material identifier(s) may be determined using relationship representation(s) specifying relationship(s) between the product or the part thereof and materials used to produce the product or the part thereof. The relationship representation(s) may be directly or indirectly associated with the decentral product identifier. This allows to determine the respective relationship representation(s) using the decentral product identifier. The relationship representation(s) may specify that the materials may be used to product the product or part thereof and/or that the product or part thereof is produced using the materials. The relationship representation may be associated with a relationship between the product or part thereof and each material used to produce the product or part thereof, for example using the decentral product identifier and material identifier(s) associated with all materials used to produce the product or the part thereof. Hence, such relationship representations may also specify raw materials and intermediate products used in the production of the product or the part thereof. The relationship representation may be associated with the relationship between input material(s) and output material(s) of a single production step within the product production chain. The product production chain may include one or more production steps. The product production chain may cover all production steps necessary to produce the product or the part thereof. Relationship representations associated with a single production step may be linked to each other to mirror the whole product production chain. Linking may performed by using decentral material identifier(s) associated with input material(s) used in the production step and decentral material identifier(s) associated with output material(s) resulting from said production step. Since the input material of one production step is corresponding to an output material of a previous production step the relationship representation of the previous production step will be linked to the relationship representation of a subsequent production step via respective decentral material identifier(s). Linking of such relationship representations may be used to obtain a bill of material tree structure of the product or the part thereof.

The decentral material identifier(s) may be determined using relationship representation(s) specifying relationship(s) between the product or the part thereof and recycled materials resulting from performing at least one recycling step on the product or the part thereof. The relationship representation(s) may be directly or indirectly associated with the decentral recycled material identifier. This allows to determine the respective relationship representation(s) using the decentral recycled material identifier. The relationship representation(s) may specify that the product or part thereof may be used to produce recycled material and/or that the recycled material is produced using the product or the part thereof, for example using the decentral recycled material identifier and decentral product identifier. The relationship representation(s) may further specify that the materials may be used to produce the product or the part thereof and/or that the product or the part thereof may be produced using the materials as described above.

The relationship representations may be accessed based on data related to the relationship representation(s). The data related to the relationship representation(s) may be stored on a decentral registry accessible by the decentral network node determining the decentral material identifier(s). The decentral network node may access said decentral registry using the decentral product identifier to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral product identifier. Data related to a relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation pointing to the respective relationship representation. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may comprise at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said relationship representation. It may further include at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said relationship representation. It may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service Endpoint), that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. The digital representation(s) pointing to the relationship representation may hence be uniquely associated with the decentral relationship representation identifier and the decentral product identifier or the respective decentral material identifier. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may be regarded as locator indicating the location or dedicated data storage(s) where the respective relationship representation is stored.

This decentral network node may be configured to determine data related to the respective relationship representation based on the decentral product identifier. For instance, the decentral network node may be configured to retrieve data related to the relationship representation based on the decentral product identifier from a decentral registry storing said data related to the relationship representation associated with the decentral product identifier. The decentral network node may be configured to access the relationship representation from a decentral data providing network node associated with said relationship representation. The decentral data providing network node associated with said relationship representation may be associated with the producer of the product or part thereof. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the supplier of the product or the part thereof. The relationship representation may be stored in a storage environment associated with said decentral data providing network node. The relationship representation may be part of product data associated with the decentral product identifier and stored in the storage environment associated with said decentral data providing network node. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the data owner of the product data. The decentral network node may be configured to determine decentral material identifier(s) contained in the accessed relationship representation. In case relationship representations are linked, the decentral network node may be configured to determine at least part of the materials used to produce the product or the part thereof by recursively determining data related to linked relationship representations, access respective relationship representations using the determined data and retrieve decentral material identifiers associated with materials used to produce the product or the part thereof based on the accessed relationship representations.

This decentral network node may be configured to determine data related to the respective relationship representation based on the decentral recycled material identifier. For instance, the decentral network node may be configured to retrieve data related to the relationship representation based on the decentral recycled material identifier from a decentral registry storing said data related to the relationship representation associated with the decentral recycled material identifier. The decentral network node may be configured to access the relationship representation from a decentral data providing network node associated with said relationship representation. The decentral data providing network node associated with said relationship representation may be associated with the producer of the recycled material or part thereof. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the supplier of the recycled material or the part thereof. The relationship representation may be stored in a storage environment associated with said decentral data providing network node. The relationship representation may be part of recycled material data associated with the decentral recycled material identifier and stored in the storage environment associated with said decentral data providing network node. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the data owner of the recycled material data. The decentral network node may be configured to determine the decentral product identifier contained in the accessed relationship representation. The decentral network node may be configured to determine at least part of the materials used to produce the product or the part thereof by recursively determining data related to linked relationship representations, access respective relationship representations using the determined data and retrieve decentral material identifiers associated with materials used to produce the product or the part thereof based on the accessed relationship representations.

In an embodiment, the material data is contained in product data associated with the product or a part thereof. The material data may be associated with a decentral material identifier. The decentral material identifier may be associated with the material at the time of production. The material data may be provided upon providing the material for production of the product. The material data may be accessed based on the decentral material identifier using computer-executable instructions running in an at least partially decentral computing environment. The decentral product identifier may be associated with the product or a part thereof at the time of production of the product. The decentral product identifier may be uniquely associated with a data owner and/or product data associated with the product or the part thereof of the product at the time of production of the product or the part thereof. The product data may specify the material configuration of the material used to produce the product or the part thereof. The product data may contain at least part of the accessed material data associated with the material used to produce the product or the part thereof.

In an embodiment, the material data is gathered on recycling of the product or the part thereof or after recycling of the product or the part thereof. On recycling of the product or the part thereof may include any point in time when a recycling step of the recycling process of the product or the part thereof starts. After recycling of the product or the part thereof may include any point in time after one or more recycling steps associated with the recycling process of the product or the part thereof has/have ended.

In an embodiment, the material data includes data on one or more chemical compound(s) present within the material. Data on one or more chemical compounds may include the name of the chemical compound(s), the type of the chemical compound(s), chemical compound identifier(s), relative or absolute amounts of chemical compound(s) or a combination thereof. The type of the chemical compound(s) may include compound specifications like metal, metal salt, polymer, monomer, organic compound, inorganic compound or combinations thereof. The chemical compound identifier may include a CAS number or any other identifier uniquely identifying the chemical compound. Relative amounts may be given in % by weight or % by volume, based on the total weight of the material. Absolute amounts may be given in any metric unit suitable to designate an amount, such as gram, mol, kilogram or ton.

In an embodiment, the operation data includes process specific data associated with the recycling step. Process specific data may include data related to the recycling rate of chemical compounds. The recycling rate may be determined by comparing the chemical components and respective amounts present in the product or a part thereof prior to or during performing the recycling step to chemical components and respective amounts present in the recycled material obtained after performing the recycling step. For instance, the recycling rate of black mass production may be determined by comparing the amount of heavy metals and lithium present in the battery or a part thereof, such as the battery pack, module or cell, to the amount of heavy metals and lithium present within product fractions of sorting steps performed during black mass production or present within the black mass material. The chemical compounds and amounts present prior to, during or after the recycling step may be determined by determining the chemical compounds and amounts in samples drawn during the recycling step and/or from the recycled material. Sampling may be performed on the product, such as the battery, or a part thereof, such as a module or cell. For instance, a sample of the cathode active material may be obtained by drilling into the battery, module or cell. Sampling may be performed prior to performing the recycling step, such as mechanical treatment. Chemical compounds and amounts may be determined with measurement devices suitable to determine chemical compounds and respective amounts. For instance, ICP (inductive coupled plasma) and XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy) may be used to determine heavy metals. Chemical compounds and amounts may be determined based on other chemical compounds and respective amounts. For example, the amount of lithium contained in batteries may be determined using the amount of heavy metals and the amount of phosphor present within the electrolyte.

In an embodiment, the operation data includes operation factors associated with chemical composition factors mapping the composition of the product or part thereof prior to performing the recycling step to recycled material composition after performing the recycling step. Hence, the chemical composition factors may be considered as a recycling rate as previously described. The composition of the product or part thereof prior to recycling as well as the composition of the recycled material may be determined by sampling methods as previously described.

In an embodiment, the operation data is generated from process specific data associated with the recycling step using at least one optimization method, in particular at least one data reconciliation method. Data reconciliation methods may include process data reconciliation (PDR). Process data reconciliation may use operation data (e.g. process data acquired during performing the respective recycling step) and mathematical methods to minimize the overall correction that is needed to satisfy the system constraints. The overall correction may be measured in the least squares term. Data reconciliation may be performed using the Gaussian correction principle. Data reconciliation may be performed according to VDI 2048 part 1 (September 2017) and VDI 2048 part 2 (June 2018). Hence, PDR allows to correct measurements performed during operation of the recycling step to produce a single consistent set of data, e.g. operation data, representing the most likely process operation. Data reconciliation methods may include a combination of data reconciliation and data validation methods.

In an embodiment, determining chemical composition data based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data may include determining preliminary chemical composition data based on the obtained material data and refining the determine preliminary chemical composition data using the provided operation data. For instance, preliminary composition data may be determined from the obtained material data and the determined preliminary composition data may be multiplied with the recycling rate for each chemical compound contained in the provided operation data. The preliminary chemical composition data may be determined by calculating the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the amount of product or part thereof used for production of the recycled and the respective material data, e.g. the data on chemical compounds and their respective amounts. In an embodiment, the chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of the recycled material is determined by determining preliminary composition data from the obtained material data and applying the operation factors previously mentioned to the determined preliminary composition data.

In an embodiment, the at least one product is a battery. The battery may comprise a battery management system arranged inside a battery housing. The battery may comprise battery packs or modules comprising multiple battery cells. The battery cells may comprise an electrolyte, an anode element with anode material, a cathode element with cathode material and a separator. In an embodiment, the part of a product is a battery pack, a battery module or a battery cell. The battery may comprise different chemical elements, for example Ni, Co, Mn, Li, Fe, Al, V, P, F, C, Ti and Mg in the cathode, Li, Ti, Si, C, Al and Cu in the anode, Li, F, P and volatile organic compounds in the electrolyte, and Al, Fe, Cu, Ni, Cr and plastics with Cl and Br in the casing.

In an embodiment, the recycled material is black mass material. Black mass material may refer to recycled materials comprising lithium or lithium compounds. The black mass material may be obtained from treating batteries or parts thereof, such as end-of-life batteries, out of specification batteries, battery production scrap, battery cell production scrap, battery cathode active material, and/or combinations thereof, by mechanical processes such as mechanical comminution. For example, black mass material may be derived from batteries by mechanically treating the batteries or parts thereof to obtain the active components of the electrodes such as graphite and cathode active material and may include impurities from the casing, electrode foils, cables, separator, and electrolyte. Larger parts of the batteries, like the housings, the wiring and the electrode carrier films, may be separated mechanically prior to or after mechanical treatment. Mechanical treatment may be performed in a hammer mill or in an industrial shredder. Mechanically treated batteries or parts thereof may be subjected to a solvent treatment to dissolve and separate polymeric binders used to bind the transition metal oxides to current collector films, or, e.g., to bind graphite to current collector films. Suitable solvents include N-methylpyrrolidone, N,N- dimethyl-formamide, N,N-dimethylacetamide, N-ethylpyrrolidone, and dimethylsulfoxide, in pure form, as mixtures of at least two of the foregoing, or as a mixture with 1 % to 99 % by weight of water.

The batteries or parts thereof may be subjected to a heat treatment under different atmospheres to pyrolyze organic (e.g. electrolyte) and polymeric (e.g. separator and binder) materials. Such a heat treatment may be performed before or after mechanical comminution of the batteries or parts thereof. The temperature range is usually in the range of 100°C to 900°C. Lower temperatures below 300°C may serve to evaporate residual solvents from the battery electrolyte, at higher temperatures the binder polymers may decompose while at temperatures above 400°C the composition of inorganic materials may change as some transition metal oxides may become reduced either by the carbon contained in the scarp material or by introducing reductive gases. In some embodiments, a reduction of lithium metal oxides may be avoided by keeping the temperature below 400°C and/or by removing carbonaceous materials before the heat treatment.

The black mass material may have an average particle diameter (D50) ranging from 1 pm to 1 cm, such as from 1 to 500 pm, and further for example, from 3 to 250 pm.

The black mass material may contain metallic Ni and Co phases, manganese oxide phases and lithium salts like LOH, Li2CO3, LiF, LiAIO2, LisPO4. The composition of the black mass material may depend on the composition of the cathode active material and the anode active material present within the battery or the part thereof. The reduction may take place by reductive conditions during the heat treatment either by introducing reducing gases like hydrogen or carbon monoxide or at temperatures above 500° C by the carbonaceous material contained in the waste battery material namely graphite and soot.

In an embodiment, providing the determined chemical composition data may include displaying the determined chemical composition data and/or providing the determined chemical composition data to a data storage medium. The determined chemical composition data may be interrelated with decentral product identifiers associated with products or a part thereof used to produce the recycled material. The determined chemical composition data may be interrelated with a decentral package identifier associated with a decentral product identifier package including decentral product identifiers associated with products or parts thereof used to produce the recycled material. The determined chemical composition data may be interrelated with the decentral recycled material identifier.

In an embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, the target composition data contains target data on one or more chemical compound(s) to be present within a feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step. Hence, the target composition data describes the target chemical composition of the recycled material, e.g. the required chemical composition of the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step. If the subsequent recycling step is operated batch- wise, the target composition data may describe the target chemical composition of a batch of recycled material that is fed into the subsequent recycling step. If the subsequent recycling step is operated as a continuous process, the target composition data may describe the target chemical composition of the continuous feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step. Target data on one or more chemical compound(s) to be present within the recycled material may include chemical compound identifier(s) and relative and/or absolute amounts and/or ranges of amounts of chemical compound(s) associated with said chemical compound identifier(s). Chemical compound identifier(s) may include the name of the chemical compound(s), the type of the chemical compound(s) and/or IDs of the chemical compound(s). The target composition data may be determined based on the operation data associated with the subsequent recycling step. Operation data may include process specific data associated with the subsequent recycling step. Process specific data may include data related to the extraction rate of chemical compounds from the recycled material. Exemplary target composition data may include the following data on one or more chemical compounds: 10 to 50 weight % nickel, 0.1 to 15 weight % cobalt, 0 to 5 weight % iron, 0 to 15 weight % lithium, 0 to 15 weight % manganese, based in each case on total weight of recycled material. A further exemplary target composition data may include the following data on one or more chemical compounds: 0.1 to 10 weight % lithium, from 0 to 60 weight % nickel, 0 to 20 weight % cobalt, 0 to 20 % percent copper, 0 to 20 weight % aluminum, 0 to 20 weight % iron, and 0 to 20 weight % manganese, based in each case on the total weight of the recycled material.

In another embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, the target composition data contains the percentage of recycled compound per defined amount of feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step. The recycled compound may be a metal compound, such as a lithium compound, a nickel compound, a copper compound, a manganese compound or a combination thereof. The target composition data may further contain the recycling rate associated with the subsequent recycling step. The recycling rate may be defined for each chemical compound or a group of chemical compounds. The recycling rate may be determined by comparing chemical compounds and respective amounts present in the recycled material prior to performing the subsequent recycling step to chemical compounds and respective amounts obtained after performing the subsequent recycling step. In yet another embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, the target composition data contains upper and/or lower concentration limits of chemical compounds. The upper and/or lower concentration limits may be given in % by weight or volume per weight, based on the total weight of the feed of recycled material feed to the subsequent recycling step. Since extraction rates in the subsequent recycling step are highly dependent on the respective chemical compound, use of upper concentration limits avoids reduced process efficiency, such as reduced extraction of metal compounds from the recycled material, due to concentrations of metal compounds within the recycled material exceeding extraction capacities within the subsequent recycling step, hence requiring reduction of the overall operating speed of the subsequent recycling step. Use of lower concentration limits ensures that chemical compounds can be recycled within the subsequent recycling step, e.g. can be extracted from the feed of recycled material.

The target composition data may be associated with the plant performing the subsequent recycling step. For instance, the target composition data my include a plant identifier associated with a respective plant, hence allowing to link the target composition data to a specific plant. The target composition data may be provided by providing the plant identifier associated with the plant performing the subsequent recycling step.

Use of the target composition data ensures that the recycling rate associated with the subsequent recycling step is optimized. For instance, the extraction rate of metals and metal compounds from the recycled material may be optimized in the subsequent recycling step using the target composition data. For example, feed of unsuitable amounts or concentrations of chemical compounds present within the recycled material to the subsequent recycling step may be avoided, hence avoiding reduced extraction of metal compounds from the recycled material due to the presence of unsuitable amounts of chemical compounds within the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step.

In an embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, recycled material availability data may relate to storage data associated with available recycled material. Available recycled material may be recycled material which has not yet processed in a subsequent (e.g. further) recycling step of the recycling process. Available recycled material may be stored in material storage. The storage data may be generated upon providing the recycled material to the material storage. The storage data may be generated prior to or after providing the recycled material to the material storage. Storage data may include the amount of recycled material and associated recycled material identifier(s). The storage data may be stored in a storage environment. The recycled material identifier may correspond to the decentral recycled material identifier. The recycled material identifier may correspond to any identifier uniquely identifying the recycled material. The recycled material identifier may be encoded or be associated with a physical identifier attached to the recycled material, such as the packaging of the recycled material. Storage data may further include data related to the location of the recycled material within the material storage. This allows to determine the location of the respective recycled material for retrieval and feed of said material to the subsequent recycling step. The availability data may further be associated with plants. For instance, certain recycled material may be available from plants performing the previous recycling step in the vicinity of the plant performing the subsequent recycling step, such as in an area of multiple 100 kilometers or less. Storage data may further include or be associated with chemical composition data determined as previously described. Via the recycled material identifier, the chemical composition data may be associated with the storage data and hence also with the material availability data. Via the recycled material identifier, chemical composition data associated with said recycled material identifier or associated with a decentral package identifier may be gathered upon generation of the storage data.

In an embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, chemical composition data is provided. Providing the chemical composition data may include determining said chemical composition data as previously described, for example via the decentral recycled material identifier. Providing the chemical composition data may include gathering said data from the provided material availability data.

In an embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, determining the feed data may include optimizing the chemical composition of recycled material using the target composition data. Optimizing may include determining a mixing ratio of different batches of recycled material having different chemical compositions such that the target composition data is met. Optimizing may include determining a mixing ratio of different batches of recycled material having different chemical compositions such that the difference between the chemical composition of the mixture of recycled material batches and the target composition data is minimized, for example below a defined threshold value. This ensures a low variation of the chemical composition of the fed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step irrespective of the composition of single batches of recycled material contained in the feed, hence ensuring a consistent recycling rate in the subsequent recycling step. Thus, variations in the chemical composition of the recycled material can be compensated, hence avoiding a negative influence of such variations on the subsequent recycling step and thus increasing the overall recycling rate associated with the product or the part thereof.

In an embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, the feed data includes a gathering of one or more recycled material identifiers associated with the recycled material and optionally chemical composition data associated with the recycled material identifiers. The feed data may further include amounts associated with recycled material identifiers. The amounts may be determined by optimizing the chemical composition data based on the target composition data as previously described. The recycled material identifier may be any identifier uniquely identifying the recycled material. The recycled material identifier may be a decentral recycled material identifier as described previously. The recycled material identifier may be a recycled material identifier used within one or more recycling steps of the recycling process. The recycled material identifier may be a recycled material identifier used within the plant performing the subsequent recycling step. The gathering may be regarded as a recycled material identifier package including the recycled material identifier(s). The recycled material identifier package may further include chemical composition data associated with recycled material identifier(s) contained in said package and/or amounts associated with the recycled material identifier(s). The recycled material identifier package may be associated with a package identifier allowing retrieval of the recycled material identifier package. The recycled material identifier package may be regarded as control or operation data of the subsequent recycling step since the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step may be based on data in said package. The recycled material identifier package may be stored on a storage environment. The recycled material identifier package may be used to schedule a recycling run of the subsequent recycling step. The recycled material identifier package may be assigned to a plant, for example by interrelating the recycled material identifier package with a plant identifier.

In an embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, further comprising the step of providing at least one emission target related to the use of the recycled material in the subsequent recycling step. The feed data may be determined based on the at least one emission target related to the use of the recycled material. Emission target data target may include emission target data per recycled material batch. This way the feed data may be tailored to specific emissions related to recycled material batches. This allows flexible use of recycled material batches and reduction of emissions related to the subsequent recycling step.

In an embodiment of the apparatus for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, further comprising the step of providing total emission target data for producing at least one product from the recycled material obtained after the recycling process, wherein the feed data is determined based on the total emission target data for producing the at least one product. The total emission target data may be related to the recycled material obtained after the recycling process and/or at least one operation property of the plant(s) performing subsequent recycling step(s) and producing the product. This way the feed data may be further tailored with respect to the production process for the new product. This allows flexible use of recycled materials and reduction of emissions related to recycled materials used to produce new products as well as production conditions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to refer to the same or like elements, components, and/or parts.

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a battery with a battery identification element as end-of-life product.

FIG. 2 illustrates schematically a battery component with an identification element as part of an end- of-life product.

FIG. 3 illustrates schematically the stages of a product life cycle.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a recycling process for end-of-life batteries.

FIG. 4B illustrates the separation step described in the context of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 illustrates example data structures based on decentral product identifiers.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method for determining chemical composition data associated with a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof in accordance with a first example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart of a further method for determining chemical composition data associated with a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof in accordance with a further example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment of obtaining material data based on decentral product identifier(s) or a decentral recycled material identifier as described in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment of authentication and authorization schemes associated with the provision of material data described in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. FIG. 10 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment for refining operation data, such as operation data used in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a decentral network including several decentral network nodes which may be accessed by a computing device.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example system for obtaining material data based on decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier as described in the context of FIG. 6, FIG. 7 and FIG. 8.

FIG. 13 illustrates an embodiment of a user interface showing material data obtained as described the context of FIG. 6, FIG. 7 and FIG. 8.

FIG. 14 shows a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner to battery data associated with a battery using a decentral data consuming network node associated with a data user.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a digital access element including DID owner data, DID document data and decentral identity infrastructure.

FIG. 16A illustrates an embodiment of relationship representations specifying relationships between a battery and materials used to produce the battery.

FIG. 16B illustrates an embodiment of part of a bill of material tree obtained from the relationship representations described in FIG. 16A.

FIG. 17 illustrates a flow chart of a method for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18A illustrates an example data structure based on decentral recycled material identifiers for feed data in connection with battery identifiers.

FIG. 18B illustrates an example data structure based on decentral recycled material identifiers for feed data in connection with component identifiers. FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a system for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof.

FIG. 20 illustrates an example of a participant network of a battery ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for transfer of product data associated with produced products used within the product ecosystem and material data associated with material used to produce the products.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following embodiments are mere examples for implementing the method, the system or application device disclosed herein and shall not be considered limiting.

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a battery 100 with an identification element 102, 104. The battery is an arbitrary example of an end-of-life product. Any plastics packaging, electronic device or other end-of-life product is equivalently usable and the mere explanation by the battery example shall not limit the scope of the underlying concepts lined out here.

The battery 100 may comprise a battery management system 106 and a plurality of battery cells 108 arranged inside a battery housing 110. The battery cells 108 may be arranged in battery packs or modules comprising multiple battery cells 108. The battery cell 108 may comprise an electrolyte 112, an anode element 114, a cathode element 116, and a separator 118.

Depending on the application, different components of batteries comprise different material compositions. For instance, the battery may be a lithium-ion battery. The cathode elements 116 may include active material coated on a collector foil such as aluminum or copper foil. The active material may further contain binders, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and carbon as conducting agents. Cathode active materials may contain layered oxides (LiMO2 with M=Co, Ni, Mn, Al such as LCO (LiCoO2), NCM (LiNixMn_yCo_zO2), NCA (LiNixCo_yAlzO2)), spinels (UM2O4 with M=Mn, Ni such as LMO (LiMnO4)) or phosphates (LiMPO4 with M= Fe, Mn, Co, Ni such as LiFePO4).

The anode element 114 may include anode active material coated on collector foil such as aluminum or copper foil. The active material may contain artificial graphite, natural graphite or compositions thereof. Further the active material may include silicon, SiO2, lithium titanate (LTO) or combinations thereof. Further the active material may contain binders such as styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), polymeric thickener like carboxylmethyl cellulose (CMC) and carbon as conducting agent. The electrolytes 112 may comprise salts, solvents such as carbonates, esters or ethers to provide conductivity and additives e. g. to support the formation of SEI-layers such as alkyl sulfites and sulfones e. g. ethene sulfite and propene sulfone. Mixtures of cyclic carbonates such as ethylene carbonate (EC) or propylene carbonate (PC) with open chained carbonates such as dimethyl carbonate (DMC) may be included. As conducting salt lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPFs), lithium bis(trifluormethyl)sulfonylimid (LiTFSI) and its derivates (e.g., lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl) imide (LiFSI)) or lithium [tris(pentafluorethyl)- trifluorphosphate] (LiFAP), lithium 4,5-dicyano-2-trifluoromethyl-imidazolide (LiTDI), lithium bis(oxalate)borate (LiBOB)), ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC), and/or diethyl carbonate (DEC) may be used.

Separators 118 may divide the space between the electrodes and are permeable for ions. Separator types include microporous membranes, ceramic-coated separators, non-woven mats, solid inorganic or polymeric electrolytes. Polyolefin-based membranes coated e.g., with PVDF or ceramics may be used.

The identification element 102, 104 may be physically associated with the battery 100. The identification element 102, 104 may be physically attached to the battery housing 110 or be part of the battery management system 106. The identification element 102, 104 may be arranged inside or outside the battery housing 110. The identification element 102, 104 may be a passive identification element 104. The passive element 104 may be arranged on the outer surface of the battery housing 110. The passive element 104 may be based on markers embedded into the material. The passive element 104 may include a printed code such as a bar code or a QR code. The identification element 102, 104 may be an active identification element 104. The active element 104 may be a transmitter or transceiver tag, such as an RFID tag enabling communication through e.g. NFC, Bluetooth, Zigbee or other suitable near- to midrange communication protocols. The identification element 104 may be part of the battery management system 16 or the digital product identifier may be stored in the battery management system 106.

The identification element 102, 104 may be associated with a decentral product identifier. The decentral product identifier may be unique for the end-of-life product, such as the battery. The decentral product identifier may be further associated with data related to the product, such as data related to the battery. Such data may include any data collected during the production or lifetime of the battery 100. For instance, such data may include material data such as material configuration data collected during production of the product or monitoring data collected during use of the product associated with the decentral product identifier.

The decentral product identifier may include at least one decentral identifier. The decentral identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the data owner and the identified battery 100. The decentral identifier may include a Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) or a Digital I Dentifier (DID). The decentral identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral identifier may include authentication information for authentication of the data relating to the identified product. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the battery 100, access to the product data may be controlled by the data owner of the product data. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the identifier as controlled by any data owner. The data may be hosted in a database associated or under control of the data owner. The identification element 102, 104 may be configured to provide the decentral product identifier for accessing data relating to the identified product.

The decentral product identifier may include one or more identifier(s) used in the decentral computing environment and allowing for data exchange via the decentral computing environment, such as the peer- to-peer communication channel. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral product identifier for participant nodes of the decentral computing environment, authentication of participant nodes of the decentral computing environment and/or authorization of data transfers via a peer-to-peer communication between participant nodes of the decentral computing environment.

The data owner may comprise any entity generating data, particularly data relating to the battery identified. The generating node may be coupled to the entity owning physical products from or for which data, particularly, the data relating to the battery identified, is generated. The data, particularly the data relating to the battery identified, may be generated by a third-party entity on behalf of the entity owning physical products from or for which data is generated. The data owner may be the producer of the material, component contained in the battery or the battery, such as the material producer, the component producer or product producer. Via the decentral product identifier and its unique association with the data owner and data relating to the product identified, access to the respective data may be controlled by the data owner. The data relating to the product identified may be accessible for the data owner. The data owner may hence directly or indirectly own or control the data relating to the product identified. The data relating to the product identified may be stored in a storage environment of or associated with the data owner. The data relating to the product identified may be stored in a storage environment accessible by the data owner. The data owner may control access to the data relating to the product identified via the data providing service of the data owner. The data owner may control access to the data relating to the product identified. The data relating to the product identified may be associated with the data owner. The data owner may be the owner or controller of the data relating to the product identified or the data relating to the product identified owner. The data relating to the product identified may be stored in a storage environment of or under control by the data owner. In this sense, the data owner may relate to the entity having access to the data relating to the product identified or parts thereof and controlling access by decentral data providing network nodes of the decentral computing environment to the data relating to the product identified or parts thereof.

In particular, the decentral product identifier may relate to the material data specifying the material composition of one or more component(s) of the product. The decentral product identifier may be associated with the battery 100 and the material data may specify the material composition of one or more component(s) of the battery 100.

FIG. 2 illustrates schematically a product component 110 with an identification element 202, 204. As mentioned in the context of FIG. 1 , the choice of a battery component as an example of an end-of-life product is arbitrary and shall not be construed limiting.

The component 110 may include one or more sub-components of the product 100. In this example, the component may include the housing of the battery. The sub-component may include the battery management system 106, the battery housing 110, the battery module or pack with a plurality of battery cells 108, the battery cell 108 or combinations of such sub-components. The component identification element 202, 204 may be associated with the product component 110. The identification element 202, 204 may be physically attached to the product component 110. The identification element 202, 204 may be arranged inside or outside the product component 110. The identification element 202, 204 may be a passive or an active identification element 102, 104 as described in the context of FIG. 1. The identification element 202, 204 may be associated with a decentral component identifier. The decentral product identifier may include at least one decentral identifier associated with the identified product component 110 as described in the context of FIG. 1. In particular, the identification element 202, 204 may be configured to provide the decentral component identifier for accessing data related to the identified product component, such as material data. The decentral product identifier may relate to the component 110, for which the material data specifies the material composition.

FIG. 3 illustrates schematically the stages of a product life cycle. The product may be a battery or a part thereof, such as a battery cell, a battery module or a battery pack. The product life cycle may include the primary life cycle and the secondary life cycle. The primary life cycle may include the use of a produced end product while the secondary life cycle may include the re-use of an already used end product. For instance, the primary life cycle may include the production and use of a battery while the secondary life cycle may include the re-use of the battery produced and used in the primary life cycle. The secondary life cycle may include different uses of the product than the primary life cycle. The secondary life cycle may include similar uses of the product than the primary life cycle.

The primary life cycle may include the supply of one or more raw materials to one or more productions. The one or more raw materials may include chemical raw materials used to produce a product or a part thereof. The one or more raw materials may include virgin materials, e.g. materials not resulting from a recycling process. The one or more raw materials may include recycled materials, e.g. materials resulting from performing a recycling process on a product. The one or more raw materials may include a mixture of virgin materials and recycled materials. The primary life cycle may include production of the product from one or more raw materials. The production may include one or more production steps. The production may involve the production of chemical intermediate products and/or chemical products. The chemical products may be used to produce parts or components. The production may involve the production of components and assemblies which are used to produce the product.

The product may be an end product, such as an electric vehicle. The electric vehicle may comprise a battery. Production of a battery may include production of metal precursors from virgin material and/or recycled material. Production of a battery may include production of cathode active material from the produced metal precursors. Cathode active material may include the cathode active material described in the context of FIG. 1. Production of a battery may include production of cathodes by applying cathode material to a metal sheet, such as an aluminum foil. The cathode material may contain cathode active material, polymer binder, solvent (e.g. NMP) and conductive additives (e.g. carbon). Production of a battery may include production of anode active material from the recycled and/or virgin materials. Anode active material may include the anode active material described in the context of FIG. 1 . Production of a battery may include production of anodes by applying anode material to a metal sheet, such as an aluminum foil. The anode material may be prepared from anode active material (e.g. graphite or graphite + silicon), conductive material (e.g. carbon black), and polymer binder (e.g. carboxymethyl cellulose, CMC). Production of a battery may include cutting produced cathodes and/or anodes. Production of a battery may include production of a cell assembly by stacking the anode, separator, cathode, separator, etc. in repeating cycles or winding the anode, cathode and separator into a spiral. Production of a battery may include production of a battery cell from the cell assembly. Production of a battery may include filling the produced battery cell with an electrolyte under a partial vacuum and sealing the filled battery cell. The partial vacuum may help the distribution and hence wetting of all layers within the cell with the electrolyte. Production of a battery may include arranging the produced battery cells in modules to achieve serviceable units. For instance, the battery cells may be connected in series and/or in parallel to achieve the desired voltage and energy capacity. Production of a battery may include production of a battery from battery modules. The battery may include a battery management system (BMS).

The primary life cycle may include the first life phase of the produced in the manufacturing step. The first life cycle may correspond to the use of the produced product. The first life phase may include a repair phase. For instance, the electric vehicle may be repaired to prolong its lifetime.

The primary life cycle may include a collection step. In this step, the used product may be collected. The collected used products may be transported to one or more central collection points. The collected used products may be transported to one or more dismantling companies. The used product may be dismantled and components, such as the battery, may be analyzed to determine further deployment. For instance, the state of health (SoH) of used batteries may be analyzed to determine whether they can be used in the secondary life cycle or whether they need to be recycled.

The secondary life cycle may include the re-use of used products or parts thereof. For instance, used batteries may be re-used in stationary energy storage systems for grid stabilization or as a buffer in high- power charging stations. In another instance, used battery modules may be reused in vehicles as remanufactured spare parts. Re-use of the product or part thereof in the secondary life cycle may include repairs, preparatory work, and modifications of the product or part thereof. The secondary life cycle may end in the recycling step of the primary life cycle.

The primary life cycle may include a recycling step. The recycling process for a product may include collecting, dismantling, sorting, mechanical treatment, chemical treatment, thermal treatment or any other steps for transforming end products into recycled material. The recycling process may result in retaining raw materials which can then be used in the manufacturing step previously described. The recycling step for batteries may include one or more step(s) described in the context of FIGs. 4A and 4B.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a recycling process for end-of-life (EOL) batteries. This is an arbitrary choice and shall not be considered limiting. End-of-life batteries may have a state of health (SoH) which is below predefined threshold values. The state-of-health (SoH) may be a measurement that indicates the level of degradation and remaining capacity of the battery. It may be defined as the ratio of the maximum battery charge to its rated capacity. SoH may be determined with the BMS of the battery. SoH may be determined using Battery Capacity Determination (BCD).

Batteries comprise different parts of material as described in the context of FIG. 1 . The recycling process may comprise different steps and may have different designs. The first step may be the dismantling step 402. This step may comprise discharging the EOL battery 404. This step may comprise disassembly of the EOL battery or the discharged EOL battery 406 to separate components. Disassembly may include separating the housing, the frame, cables and the BMS from battery modules contained within the EOL battery. The components resulting from the disassembly 406 may be fed into subsequent recycling steps. For instance, the modules may be fed into a mechanical treatment step 414 or a pyrometallurgy treatment step 408.

The pyrometallurgy treatment step 408 may include smelting 410. Smelting 410 may include feeding the modules into a heating furnace. The heating furnace comprise different heating zones to avoid explosion of the fed modules. For instance, the heating furnace may comprise a preheating zone with a temperature of lower than 300 °C to ensure complete evaporation of the electrolyte without explosion, a pyrolysis zone with a temperature of above 700 °C to evaporate plastic components of the modules, and a smelting reduction zone where the remaining material is smelted into alloys of Cu, Co, Ni, Mn and Fe, along with Li, Al, Si, Ca, Mn and some Fe slag. This method is usually only used to recover Cu, Co, Ni, and small amounts of Mn and Fe. The pyrometallurgy treatment step 408 may include extraction 412 to extract the alloy from the slag. The extracted alloy may be used in a hydrometallurgy treatment step 420 as described later on. Smelting 410 may include selective pyrolysis in an arc furnace to obtain alloy and Li containing slag. The Li slag may be extracted by hydrometallurgy 420 as described later on (not shown). The selective pyrolysis may be used to also recycle components of the electrolyte, such as Li and Fe, which may greatly improve the recovery efficiency.

The mechanical treatment step 414 may include shredding 416. The mechanical treatment step may include separation 418 of the shredded material. Separation may result in metals, such as Al, Cu and Fe as well as black mass material. The black mass material may comprise various metals, such as Co, Ni, Mn, Li, Mg, and carbon. Depending on the conditions used during separation, the metals may have an oxidation state of > 2 or < 2. Electrolyte residues may be removed from active materials by drying or pyrolysis before performing further separation steps. The separation step 418 may include the steps described in the context of FIG. 4B.

The hydrometallurgy treatment step 420 may comprise a leaching step 422. The leaching step may comprise a separation step of leached metal ion solutions. Hence, separation may result in metal ion solutions comprising a single metal ion, a counter ion and a solvent. This allows to separate the metals from each other, hence facilitating metal precursor production 424. The leaching step may be performed with the alloy obtained from pyrometallurgy 408 or with the black mass material resulting from mechanical treatment 414. If the leaching step is performed with the alloy, leaching may result in extraction of Cu, Fe, Co and Mn. If the leaching step is performed with black mass material, leaching may result in the extraction of Cu, Fe, Co, Mn, Li and Ni. The leaching step may be performed using inorganic acids, such as hydrochloric acid (HCI), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), nitric acid (HNO3), and phosphoric acid (H3PO4). After leaching, the leached metals may be recovered from the solution by a series of processes in sequence, such as selective precipitation, solvent extraction, ion exchange, or electrolytic deposition.

The recycled metal salts recovered after leaching may be used to produce precursors for production of cathode active material (see 424). The precursors may be synthesized using the carbonate or the hydroxide process route. For instance, the precursors may be synthesized from respective metal salt solutions by mixing said metal salt solutions and precipitating the precursor using a pH adjuster and complexing agent. The precursor may be washed and dried. The cathode active material may be prepared from the precursor by mixing the precursor with lithium salts, calcination of the mixture, grounding and classification according to size.

FIG. 4B illustrates the separation step 418 described in the context of FIG. 4A. The material obtained after shredding (see step 416 of FIG. 4A) may be dried 426 and mixed 428. Afterwards, classification 430 may be performed to separate current-conducting foils, separator parts and metals from cables from the material containing transition metals. Separated materials may include Al, Fe and Cu. Separation 430 is followed by a further crushing step 432 and a sieving step 434. Afterwards, a second classification step 436 is performed. The materials may be classified or sorted by their physical properties such as particle size, form, density, and electric and magnetic properties. Pyrolysis 438 at 700°C may be performed to remove any remaining electrolyte and fluorine-containing components which are potentially hazardous to health. The residues obtained after pyrolysis may be black mass material 440.

FIG. 5 illustrates example data structures based on decentral product identifiers. The example data structure may be associated with a product or a part thereof. The product or part thereof may be a battery or a part thereof. The product may be associated with a physical identifier, such as ID1 or ID2. The physical identifier may correspond to an identifier element physically attached to the product or a part thereof, for example as described in the context of FIGs. 1 and 2. Each data structure may include a decentral product identifier, such as a UUID or a DID. The decentral product identifier may be associated with the physical identifier, such as ID1 , ID2, of the product or part thereof. This allows to link the physical entity of the product or part thereof with the respective data structure.

The data structure may correspond to data related to the product or the part thereof. The data structure may correspond to a product passport. The data structure may be stored on a storage environment of or associated with the data owner of the data related to the product. The data owner may be a data owner as described in the context of FIG. 1. The data related to the product may correspond to product data. The data structure may describe properties of the associated product or part thereof. The data structure may be regarded as a digital twin or a part thereof of the physical entity of the product or the part thereof. The digital twin may be a digital representation of a physical entity of the product or part thereof with a defined semantic description of said physical entity of the product or part thereof. The digital twin of the physical entity of the product or part thereof is hence a digital version of said physical entity. Once created, the digital twin can be used to represent the physical entity of the product or part thereof in a digital representation of a real-world system. The data contained in the data structure may hence depend on the type of product or part thereof.

In this example, the data contained in the data structure may include manufacturing data of the battery, chemical and/or physical property data, emission data, battery identifiers, and lifetime data of the battery. Manufacturing data may include data on the manufacturer of the battery, such as name and/or address, and data on the manufacturing location and date, such as the address of the manufacturing location and the manufacturing date, and data on the warranty period. Chemical property data of the battery may include data on the composition of the battery or parts thereof, such as the cathode active material, the anode active material and the electrolyte, electrochemical properties, the presence of critical raw materials etc. Physical property data may include data on the dimensions of the battery, and temperature ranges in idle state. Emission data may include carbon dioxide footprint information associated with the battery. Lifetime data of the battery may be acquired by the BMS of the battery and may be used to update the data contained in the data structure. This way, the data structure reflects the current state of the battery, hence representing a digital twin of the battery throughout its lifetime. Lifetime data may include the state of health, the state of charge, the status of the battery, such as first life, waste, repaired, repurposed, recycled and the battery life cycle. Battery identifiers may include data related to the battery type, such as LFP, Natrium, Na-Ion, Li-Ion, NMC, NCA, Solid-State, and battery identifiers including a string and/or number(s).

The data structure illustrated in FIG. 5 may be accessed by computer-executable instructions running in an at least partially decentral or decentral computing environment, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The data structure may be accessed by a decentral data consuming network node using the decentral product identifier. The data structure may be provided to the decentral data consuming network node by a decentral data providing network node associated with the data structure illustrated in FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a first example method for determining chemical composition data associated with a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof. The method may be implemented in a decentral network, for example as described in the context of FIGs. 11 to 14.

The product or part thereof may be a battery or a part thereof, such as a battery pack, module, cell or residues from the production of the battery cell. The recycled material may be black mass material. The recycling process may be a recycling process for recycling batteries or parts thereof. The recycling steps may include collection, dismantling and mechanical treatment, for example as described in the context of FIGs. 4A and 4B.

Reliably determining the chemical composition of recycled material from material data associated with materials used to produce the product allows to avoid time consuming analysis of the chemical composition of the recycled material via sampling. Since sampling is highly dependent on the homogeneity of the recycled material composition, analysis of the chemical composition of inhomogeneous recycled material via sampling may result in unreliable results. In contrast, determining the chemical composition of recycled material from material data associated with materials used to produce the product allows to reliably determine said chemical composition irrespective of the homogeneity of the recycled material. The determined chemical composition data of the recycled materials, such as black mass material, may be used to tailor the feed of recycled material to subsequent recycling steps to optimize the quality of the recyclate resulting from said subsequent recycling step, to fulfill emission targets of the subsequent recycling step or recyclate resulting from said step, and to optimize recycling efficiency of the subsequent recycling step, for example as described in the context of

FIG. 17.

In block 602, decentral product identifiers associated with products or parts thereof to be recycled or a decentral recycled material identifier associated with a recycled material obtained from recycling products or parts thereof may be provided. Such data may be provided e.g. as described in the context of FIGs. 1 and 2 via the identifier elements physically connected to the product or the part thereof to be recycled or physically attached to the recycled material. The decentral product identifiers may hence by associated with the product or part thereof to be recycled. The decentral recycled material identifier may hence by associated with the recycled material. The identifier element of the product may be read as described in the context of FIGs. 1 , 2 and 14. The data read by the code reader may be used to determine the decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier associated with the physical identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The decentral product identifier or the decentral recycled material identifier may be encoded in the physical identifier. The decentral product identifier or the decentral recycled material identifier may be retrieved from a decentral registry based on the data determined by the code reader, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14.

In block 604, material data associated with one or more materials used to produce the product or the part thereof may be obtained from a decentral network node based on the decentral product identifier(s) or decentral recycled material identifier provided in block 602. The decentral network node may be associated with the reading of the physical identifier described in block 602. The decentral network node may be configured to gather the material data based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier. Gathering material data may include determining decentral material identifier(s) associated with the material(s) used to produce the product based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or decentral recycled material identifier and gathering the material data associated with at least part of the determined decentral material identifier(s) from decentral data providing network node(s) associated with said material data. The decentral material identifier(s) may be determined by the decentral network node. The decentral network node may be part of a decentral network, such as the decentral network described in the context of FIG. 11. The decentral material identifier(s) may be determined by a further decentral network node being in communication with the decentral network node gathering the material data. The decentral material identifier(s) may be determined using relationship representations, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8.

Material data obtained in block 604 may include data on one or more chemical compound(s) present within the material. Data on one or more chemical compounds may include the name of the chemical compound(s), the type of the chemical compound(s), chemical compound identifier(s), relative or absolute amounts of chemical compound(s) or a combination thereof. Block 604 may be performed on recycling of the product or the part thereof. Block 604 may be performed after recycling of the product or the part thereof.

In block 606, operation data associated with the operation of the recycling step may be provided. The operation data may include process specific data associated with the recycling step. Process specific data may include data related to the recycling rate of chemical compounds. The recycling rate may be determined by comparing the chemical components and respective amounts present in the product or a part thereof prior to or during performing the recycling step to chemical components and respective amounts present in the recycled material obtained after performing the recycling step. The chemical compounds and amounts present prior to, during or after the recycling step may be determined by determining the chemical compounds and amounts in samples drawn from the product, during the recycling step and/or from the recycled material. Sampling may be performed on the product, such as the battery, or a part thereof, such as a module or cell. For instance, a sample of the cathode active material may be obtained by drilling into the battery, module or cell. Sampling may be performed prior to performing the recycling step, such as mechanical treatment. Chemical compounds and amounts may be determined with measurement devices suitable to determine chemical compounds and respective amounts. For instance, ICP (inductive coupled plasma) and XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy) may be used to determine heavy metals. Chemical compounds and amounts may be determined based on other chemical compounds and respective amounts. For example, the amount of lithium contained in batteries may be determined using the amount of heavy metals and the amount of phosphor present within the electrolyte.

The operation data may include operation factors associated with chemical composition factors mapping the composition of the product or part thereof prior to performing the recycling step to recycled material composition after performing the recycling step. Hence, the chemical composition factors may be considered as a recycling rate as previously described. The composition of the product or part thereof prior to recycling as well as the composition of the recycled material may be determined as previously described.

The operation data may be refined, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10 and the refined operation data may be provided in block 606. This allows to improve the accuracy of the determined chemical product data and allows to adapt the operation data to the operation parameters associated with the operation of the recycling step. Hence, also varying operation parameters as well as inaccuracies upon determination of the operation data may be considered.

In block 608, chemical composition data associated with the recycled material may be determined based on the obtained material data and provided operation data. Determining chemical composition data may include determining preliminary chemical composition data based on the obtained material data and refining the determine preliminary chemical composition data using the provided operation data. The preliminary composition data may correspond to a theoretical value since it does not consider the operation factors, such as recycling rate, associated with the recycling step. Hence, the preliminary composition data may vary from the chemical composition data obtained upon refining. The preliminary composition data may be more inaccurate than the chemical composition data because operation factors of the recycling step resulting in material losses are not considered. Hence, use of the operation data associated with the recycling step may allow to determine chemical composition data with a higher accuracy, which in turn allows to perform subsequent recycling steps being dependent on the chemical composition of the recycled material more efficient. For instance, a higher extraction rate may be achieved in the subsequent leaching step if the chemical composition of the recycled material, e.g. black mass material, is known, thus allowing to tune the chemical composition of the black mass feed to the leaching process such that the extraction rate is maximized.

The preliminary chemical composition data may be determined by calculating the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the amount of product or part thereof used for production of the recycled and the respective material data, e.g. the data on chemical compounds and their respective amounts.

The preliminary composition data may be multiplied with the recycling rate for each chemical compound contained in the provided operation data to obtain the chemical composition data in block 608.

The chemical composition data may be determined by determining preliminary composition data from the obtained material data as previously described and applying operation factors to the determined preliminary composition data.

In block 610, the determined chemical composition data may be provided. Providing may include storing said chemical composition data in a storage environment. The chemical composition data may be interrelated with a recycled material identifier. The recycled material identifier may be a decentral recycled material identifier. This allows retrieval of the determined chemical composition data based on the recycled material identifier or decentral recycled material identifier. Providing may include displaying the determined chemical composition data, for example within a graphical user interface.

By using the linkage between the decentral product identifier and decentral material identifiers associated with materials used to produce the product or the part thereof, material data associated with said materials can be efficiently and securely retrieved from decentral data providing network nodes associated with said material data. By using operation data associated with the recycling step, the yield of recycled material or chemical compounds contained in said recycled material, such as metals, can be considered, hence allowing to increase the accuracy of the determined chemical composition data compared to sampling methods which may yield unreliable results due to inhomogeneous composition of the recycled material. A higher accuracy of the determined chemical composition data allows to optimize the recycling efficiency of the subsequent recycling step using such recycled material as input, hence increasing the overall recycling rate of the recycling process. Improved recycling rates allow to reduce the amount of virgin material required for the production of new product, such as batteries. This way, the overall environmental impact of the product ecosystem can be reduced.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart of a further example method for determining chemical composition data associated with a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof. The method may be implemented in a decentral network, for example as described in the context of FIGs. 11 to 14.

The product or part thereof may be a battery or a part thereof, such as a battery pack, module, cell or residues from the production of the battery cell as described in the context of FIG. 6. The recycled material may be black mass material as described in the context of FIG. 6. The recycling process may be a recycling process for recycling batteries or parts thereof as described in the context of FIG. 6.

In block 702, decentral product identifiers associated with products or parts thereof to be recycled or a decentral recycled material identifier associated with the recycled material may be provided, for example as described in the context of block 602 of FIG. 6.

In block 704, product data may be obtained with a decentral network node based on the decentral product identifiers or decentral recycled material identifier provided in block 702. In case a decentral recycled material identifier is provided, product data may be obtained using a relationship representation as described in the context of FIGs. 6 and 12. The product data may be accessed by the decentral network node using the decentral product identifier. The product data may be accessed at a decentral data providing network node associated with a storage environment storing the product data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the data owner of the product data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with a product producer, as described in the context of FIG. 1.

In block 706, it may be determined whether the obtained product data contains material data. The material data may be associated with a decentral material identifier. The decentral material identifier may be associated with the material at the time of production. The material data may be provided upon providing the material for production of the product or part thereof. The material data may be accessed based on the decentral material identifier using computer-executable instructions running in an at least partially decentral computing environment. The decentral product identifier may be associated with the product or a part thereof at the time of production of the product. The decentral product identifier may be uniquely associated with a data owner and/or product data associated with the product or the part thereof of the product at the time of production of the product or the part thereof. The product data may contain data on the type and amount of chemical compounds present within the product or a part thereof. The product data may contain at least part of the accessed material data associated with the material used to produce the product or the part thereof. If the product data contains material data, the method proceeds to block 710. Otherwise, the method proceeds to block 708.

In block 708, material data associated with one or more materials used to produce the product or part thereof may be obtained from a decentral network node based on the provided decentral product identifiers or decentral recycled material identifiers, for example as described in the context of block 604 of FIG. 6.

In block 710, operation data associated with the operation of the recycling step may be provided, for example as described in block 606 of FIG. 6. Use of the operation data associated with the recycling step may allow to determine chemical composition data with a higher accuracy, which in turn allows to perform subsequent recycling steps being dependent on the chemical composition of the recycled material more efficient. For instance, a higher extraction rate may be achieved in the subsequent leaching step if the chemical composition of the recycled material, e.g. black mass material, is known, thus allowing to tune the chemical composition of the black mass feed to the leaching process such that the extraction rate is maximized.

In block 712, chemical composition data of the recycled material may be determined based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data, for example as described in block 608 of FIG. 6.

In block 714, the determined chemical composition data may be provided, for example as described in the context of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment of obtaining material data based on decentral product identifier(s) or a decentral recycled material identifier as described in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. The method may be implemented in a decentral network, for example as described in the context of FIGs. 11 to 14.

In block 802, a decentral participant identifier associated with a decentral network participant may be provided to the decentral network node, this block being generally optional. The decentral network participant may be a participant of the recycling process associated with the product or part thereof. The decentral network participant may be an entity performing the method as described in the context of FIGs. 6 or 7. The decentral participant identifier may include a string and/or numbers. The decentral participant identifier may be associated with authentication schemes, such as a private-public key scheme. Use of a decentral participant identifier allows to improve security with respect to access of material data, since access to said material data may be restricted and only defined decentral network participants may be allowed to access such data, for example as illustrated in the context of FIG. 9. The decentral participant identifier may be provided to a decentral identity management access node (see for example FIGs. 11 , 12). The decentral identity management access node may be configured to perform authentication steps with the provider of the decentral participant identifier. The decentral identity management access node may provide an access token if authorization is performed successfully. This access token may be presented to the decentral network node. Authentication ensures that gathering of material data using the decentral network node can only be initiated by authenticated decentral network participants. This allows to improve security since it avoids that complete bill of material trees for a product or part thereof which may contain sensitive data with respect to supply chain information is obtained by unauthenticated entities.

In block 804, the decentral network node may obtain data related to relationship representation(s) based on the decentral product identifier(s)/decentral recycled material identifier provided in block 602 or 706 from a decentral registry node (see also FIGs. 11 and 12). The decentral registry node may store decentral product identifier(s) associated with data related to respective relationship representations. Relationship representations are, for example, illustrated in FIG. 16A. The decentral network node may access said decentral registry using the decentral product identifier(s) or decentral recycled material identifier to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral product identifier(s)/decentral recycled material identifier. Data related to a relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation pointing to the respective relationship representation. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may comprise at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said relationship representation. It may further include at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said relationship representation. It may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service Endpoint), that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. The digital representation(s) pointing to the relationship representation may hence be uniquely associated with the decentral relationship representation identifier and the decentral product identifier or the decentral recycled material identifier. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may be regarded as locator indicating the location or dedicated data storage(s) where the respective relationship representation is stored.

The relationship representation(s) may specify relationship(s) between the product or the part thereof and materials used to produce the product or the part thereof. The relationship representation(s) may be directly or indirectly associated with the decentral product identifier. This allows to determine the respective relationship representation(s) using the decentral product identifier. The relationship representation(s) may specify that the materials may be used to product the product or the part thereof and/or that the product or the part thereof is produced using the materials. The relationship representation may be associated with a relationship between the product or the part thereof and each material used to produce the product or the part thereof, for example using the decentral product identifier and material identifier(s) associated with all materials used to produce the product or the part thereof. Hence, such relationship representations may also specify raw materials and intermediate products used in the production of the product or the part thereof. The relationship representation may be associated with the relationship between input material(s) and output material(s) of a single production step within the product production chain. Such relationship representations may be linked to mirror the whole product production chain. Examples of relationship representations which may be used to determine the decentral material identifier(s) are, for example, illustrated in FIG. 16A. Determining decentral material identifier(s) using the relationship representations may allow to construct a bill of material tree structure for the product or part thereof, for example as illustrated in FIG. 16B.

The relationship representation(s) may specify relationship(s) between the product or the part thereof and recycled materials resulting from performing at least one recycling step on the product or the part thereof. The relationship representation(s) may be directly or indirectly associated with the decentral recycled material identifier. The relationship representation(s) may specify that the product or the part thereof may be used to produce recycled material and/or that the recycled material is produced using the product or the part thereof, for example using the decentral recycled material identifier and decentral product identifier. The relationship representation(s) may further specify that the materials may be used to produce the product or the part thereof and/or that the product or the part thereof may be produced using the materials as described above.

The decentral network node may be configured to access relationship representation(s) based on the data related to the relationship representation(s) retrieved from the decentral registry node. The decentral network node may be in communication with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access relationship representation(s) and material data. The relationship representation(s) may be accessed from decentral data providing network node(s) associated with a storage environment storing the respective relationship representation. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the owner of the product data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the product producer or the component producer. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the owner of the recycled material data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the recycled material producer. The relationship representation may include the decentral product identifier and one or more decentral material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the product (denoted as child identifier(s) hereinafter). The relationship representation may include the decentral recycled material identifier and one or more decentral product identifier(s) associated with products or parts thereof used to produce the recycled material. In block 806, decentral child identifier(s) associated with the decentral product identifier or the decentral recycled material identifier may be determined based on the obtained relationship representation(s). The decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier may be regarded as decentral parent identifier. The decentral child identifier(s) may correspond to material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the product or the part thereof. The decentral child identifier(s) may correspond to the decentral product identifier associated with the decentral recycled material identifier. The relationship representation may contain one or more decentral child identifiers. The relationship representation may include the decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier. This allows to link the decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier to respective child identifier(s).

In block 808, it may be determined whether to obtain material data associated with the decentral child identifier(s) determined in block 806. The determination may be made based on data provided to the decentral network node. For instance, data associated with a defined material data set (also called asset hereinafter) may be provided and this data may be used to determine whether to retrieve material data or not. If material data is to be obtained, the method proceeds to block 810. Otherwise, it proceeds to block 812.

In block 810, material data may be obtained based on the determined decentral child identifier(s). The material data may be obtained from decentral data providing network nodes associated with said material data. Respective decentral data providing network nodes may be determined by the decentral network node using the determined decentral child identifier(s). For instance, the decentral child identifier(s) may be associated with a digital representation pointing to the material data or parts thereof. Said digital representation may correspond to an endpoint address associated with a respective decentral data providing network node. The data related to the material data may be stored on the decentral registry node and may be determined using the decentral child identifier(s) determined in block 806. The digital representation may be used to access the material data at the decentral data providing network node associated with said digital representation. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with a storage environment storing the material data or parts thereof. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with a data owner of the material data. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the producer of the respective material. Data exchange may be performed after respective authentication and authorization processes. Authorization may be based on the decentral participant identifier. For instance, the decentral data providing network node may determine whether the material data may be accessed using access rules associated with the provided decentral participant identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. The accessed material data may be stored in a storage environment associated with the decentral network node requesting access to said data. Afterwards, the method proceeds to block 812. In block 812, it may be determined whether relationship representations of determined decentral child identifier(s) are existing. For this purpose, the decentral network node may access the decentral registry node and may determine whether data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the determined decentral child identifier(s) is existing in said registry. If this is the case, the method proceeds to block 814. If this is not the case, the method proceeds to block 816.

In block 814, data related to relationship representation(s) associated with determined decentral child identifier(s) may be obtained from the decentral registry network node as described in the context of block 806. The data related to the relationship representation(s) may be used to access associated relationship representation(s) as described in the context of block 806. The decentral child identifier(s) determined in block 806 may be regarded as decentral parent identifier(s) in block 814. The method may return to block 806 and repeat blocks 806 to 812 using the decentral child identifier(s) determined in block 812. Blocks 806 to 814 may be performed until no further decentral child identifier(s) are existing, e.g. until the leaf nodes of the bill of material tree (see for example FIG. 16B) are reached. Recursively determining decentral child identifier(s) associated with a decentral product identifier/decentral recycled material identifier allows to obtain the complete bill of material tree structure associated with a product or part thereof, e.g. allows to determine the relationships between materials used to produce the product and the product or the part thereof.

In block 816, the material data gathered in block 810 may be provided. Gathered material data may include all material data gathered in block 810. The gathered material data may be provided to a storage environment associated with network node requesting material data. The network node requesting material data may be a part of the decentral network, e.g. may be a decentral network node. The method may then proceed to block 606 of FIG. 6 or block 710 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment of authentication and authorization schemes associated with the provision of material data described in the context of FIGs. 6 to FIG. 8. The material data may include data on one or more chemical compound(s) present within the material. Data on one or more chemical compounds may include the name of the chemical compound(s), the type of the chemical compound(s), chemical compound identifier(s), relative or absolute amounts of chemical compound(s) or a combination thereof. The material data may further include or be associated with the decentral material identifier. The material data may be accessed by the decentral network node gathering the material data. The material data may be accessed by a decentral data consuming network node in communication with the decentral network node receiving an indication to gather material data. The access may be requested at a decentral data providing network node being associated with a storage environment storing the material data as described in the context of FIG. 8. The decentral data providing network node may receive an indication to access the material data associated with a determined decentral material identifier. The decentral material identifier may be determined as described in the context of FIG. 8.

Before access may be provided to the material data, the request may be authenticated in block 904, this block being generally optional. In particular, the decentral network node requesting to access the material data and/or the decentral data providing network node providing access to the material data may be authenticating. Such authentication may be based on the decentral identifiers associated with the decentral network nodes. The decentral identifiers may be associated with authentication mechanisms or identity tokens, such as a device certificate (X.509v3), a TLS connection certificate (X.509v3) and a ‘Dynamic Attribute Token’ (OAuth Access Token).

If the authentication fails, access to the material data may be denied (see blocks 906 and 908). If the authentication is valid, an authorization step may follow in block 910. Such authorization may be based on the decentral participant identifier and access data associated with the material data. Access data may include authorization rules associated with access to and/or usage of the material data. Authorization rules may include access rules associated with decentral participant identifier(s) allowed to access the material data.

If the authorization fails, access to the chemical product data may be denied (see blocks 912, 914) or access may be adapted. In particular, the authorization as requested may be adapted to be in line with the applicable authorization rules. If the authorization is valid, access to the material data may be granted according to the authorization rules as requested (see block 916). The provided material data may be stored in a storage environment associated with the decentral network node requesting access to the material data.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow chart of an embodiment for refining operation data, such as operation data used in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. Refining the operation data may allow to improve the accuracy of the determination of the chemical composition data associated with the recycled material. An improved accuracy may in turn, allows to improve subsequent recycling steps, for example with respect to the recycling rate associated with said subsequent recycling steps.

In block 1002, a sample may be taken from the product or the part thereof. The sample may be taken as described in the context of FIG. 6. The sample may be processed, for example may be contacted with a solvent.

In block 1004, chemical composition data of the product or part thereof may be determined based on data acquired by a sensor. The sensor may be a measurement device, such as an ICP (inductive coupled plasma) or XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy) device. The data provided by the sensor may be used to determine chemical composition data. Chemical composition data may be determined directly or indirectly from the data acquired by the sensor. For instance, the amount of lithium contained in product or part thereof may be determined using the amount of heavy metals and the amount of phosphor present within the electrolyte. Chemical composition data may include data on chemical compounds and respective amounts.

In block 1006, a recycling step may be performed using the product or part thereof. The recycling step may include mechanical treatment as described in the context of FIGs. 4A and 4B. The recycled material obtained after the recycling step may be black mass material.

In block 1008, a sample may be taken during performing the recycling step and/or from the recycled material produced in block 1006 and the chemical composition data of the recycled material may be determined based on data acquired by a sensor. Determination of the chemical composition may be performed as described in block 1004.

In block 1010, operation data associated with the operation of the recycling step may be provided. Operation data may include the data described in the context of FIGs. 6 and 7. Providing operation data may include determining operation data from the data obtained in block 1004 and 1008. For instance, the difference in chemical composition data determined in block 1004 and 1008 may be determined. The difference may correspond to the recycling rate or recycling efficiency of the recycling step. The difference may be determined for each chemical compound contained in the product or part thereof. Providing operation data may include providing said data from a storage environment storing said data.

In block 1012, the chemical composition data of the recycled material is determined based on the chemical composition data of the product or part thereof and the provided operation data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 6 or FIG. 7. This chemical composition data may be regarded as theoretical chemical composition data.

In block 1014, the chemical composition data determined in block 1012 may be compared with the chemical composition data determined in block 1008. Hence, the theoretical chemical composition data may be compared to chemical composition data obtained from measured data.

In block 1016, it may be determined if there are any deviations resulting from the comparison performed in block 1014. This may include considering threshold value(s) associated with a difference between the theoretical chemical composition data and measured chemical composition data. If deviations are existing or are above threshold value(s), the method may proceed to block 1018. Otherwise, the method may end or may return to block 1002. In block 1018, the provided operation data may be adjusted. This may include optimizing the operation data to minimize the difference between the theoretical and measured chemical composition data. Optimizing may include using optimization algorithms configured to minimize a difference between two data points. Optimization may include data reconciliation methods. Data reconciliation methods may include process data reconciliation (PDR). Process data reconciliation may use operation data (e.g. process data acquired during performing the respective recycling step) and mathematical methods to minimize the overall correction that is needed to satisfy the system constraints. The overall correction may be measured in the least squares term. Data reconciliation may be performed using the Gaussian correction principle. Data reconciliation may be performed according to VDI 2048 part 1 (September 2017) and VDI 2048 part 2 (June 2018). Hence, PDR allows to correct measurements performed during operation of the recycling step to produce a single consistent set of data, e.g. operation data, representing the most likely process operation. Data reconciliation methods may include a combination of data reconciliation and data validation methods. Combination of data reconciliation and data validation may include the following steps: data acquisition from operation of the recycling step including measured chemical composition data and process parameters, data validation and filtering of raw measurements, data reconciliation of filtered measurements and result verification using range check and gross error remediation. Combination of data reconciliation and data validation allows to obtain a coherent set of validated and reconciled process data. After adjusting the provided operation data, the method may return to block 1012 and may determine the chemical composition data of the recycled material based on the determined chemical composition data of the product or part thereof and the optimized operation data as described previously.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a decentral network 1114 including several decentral network nodes which may be accessed by a computing device 1112. At least a part of the decentral network nodes may be associated with network participants, such as described in the context of FIG. 20. The computing device 1112 may be a mobile computing device, such as a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet or the like. The computing device 1112 may be a stationary computing device, such as a desktop computer or the like. The computing device 1112 may comprise a screen configured to display information provided by the decentral network. For instance, the screen may display a graphical user interface as illustrated in FIG. 13.

The decentral network may be a decentral peer-to-peer communication network. The decentral network may include decentral network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem and may be configured to perform data transactions. An example of such a decentral network for a battery ecosystem is illustrated in FIG. 20. The product ecosystem may include the product production. The product ecosystem may include the product recycling. The network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem may be associated with raw chemical product suppliers, intermediate chemical products manufacturers, intermediate part manufacturers, component manufacturers, component assembly manufacturers, end product manufacturers and participants of the recycling process. The product production may include supply chains for producing the materials used to produce the product. The data transactions may be based on a transaction protocol including authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to- peer communication between decentral participant network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to decentral identifier(s), such as decentral product identifier(s), decentral recycled material identifier(s) and/or decentral material identifier(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier(s) may be accessible by the decentral participant network node(s).

Decentral network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem may include decentral data providing network nodes 1110. Decentral data providing network nodes may be configured to provide data, such as product data or material data, upon a request to access this data. The data may be provided upon successful authentication and authorization, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. The decentral data providing network nodes may be associated with a data owner of the product data or material data, for example as described in the context of FIGs. 6 and 7. Such decentral network nodes associated with participants of the product ecosystem may include decentral data consuming network nodes, such as decentral network node 1104. Decentral data consuming network nodes may be configured to request access to data, such as product data or material data, at respective decentral data providing network node(s). Decentral data consuming network nodes may be configured to access data pointing to the product data or the material data, such as the decentral product identifier/decentral material identifier/decentral recycled material identifier and associated digital representations pointing to the product or material data, from decentral registry node 1102. Decentral registry node 1102 may be configured to store decentral identifiers associated with respective digital representations pointing to data or part thereof. Access to said data allows decentral data consuming network nodes to determine the decentral data providing network node associated with the data to be obtained. For instance, decentral data consuming network node(s) may access decentral registry node 1102 with the decentral product identifier associated with the product or part thereof or the decentral recycled material identifier associated with the recycled material and may retrieve respective digital representations pointing to the product data/recycled material data, respectively.

The decentral network nodes may include decentral infrastructure nodes. Such infrastructure nodes may not be associated with participants of the product ecosystem. Such infrastructure nodes may provide services to participants of the product ecosystem. For instance, such infrastructure nodes may be configured to provide authentication services for decentral network nodes, such as decentral IAM network nodes 1106 and 1108. Decentral IAM network nodes may be configured to provide identity and access management services for decentral network nodes and/or for computing devices 1112 requesting data from the decentral network. For instance, decentral 1AM network node(s) may be configured to generate access tokens to authorized decentral network node(s) and/or computing devices 1112 and to provide such access tokens to the decentral network node or computing device requesting said tokens. Such access tokens may be used during authentication processes. In another instance, such infrastructure nodes may be configured to gather data upon receiving a request from a computing device, such as computing device 1112 (e.g. decentral network node 1104). In yet another instance, such infrastructure nodes may serve as a repository storing data available to one or more decentral network nodes, such as decentral registry node 1102.

The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example system for obtaining material data based on a decentral product identifier or a decentral recycled material identifier as described in the context of FIG. 6, FIG. 7 and FIG. 8. The system of FIG. 12 may be used to perform the methods described in FIGs. 6 to 8.

The product or part thereof may be a battery or a part thereof. The recycled material may be a material obtained upon performing at least one recycling step on the product or part thereof (see for example FIGs. 4A and 4B). The recycled material may be black mass material. The battery may be an end-of-life battery in the primary or secondary life cycle (see. FIG. 3). The battery may be designated for the recycling step of the primary or secondary life cycle. The product or part thereof may be associated with a digital twin. The digital twin of the product or part thereof may include the decentral product identifier and product data. Product data may include the data structure illustrated in FIG. 5. The digital twin of the recycled material may include the decentral recycled material identifier and recycled material data. Recycled material data may include at least one measured chemical and/or physical property of the recycled material. Recycled material data may include data associated with the production of the recycled material. Recycled material data may include chemical composition data determined according to the methods disclosed herein, such as the methods disclosed in the context of FIG. 6 to FIG. 8.

A digital access element may be generated upon or after production of the product or part thereof. A digital access element may be generated upon or after production of the recycled material. The digital access element may be associated with the respective digital twin or a part thereof. The digital access element may contain a decentral access element identifier and access data. The decentral access element identifier may correspond to or be associated with the decentral product identifier or the decentral recycled material identifier. The access data may include digital representation(s) pointing to the respective digital twin or a part thereof. Examples of digital access elements are illustrated in FIG. 15. The digital access element may further include or relate to authentication and/or authorization information linked to the decentral access element identifier. The authentication and/or authorization information may be provided for authentication and/or authorization of the decentral network node 1104/decentral data consuming network nodes and decentral data providing network nodes. The digital access element may be provided to a decentral registry node 1102, for example as described in the context of FIG. 11. Decentral registry node 1102 may store decentral access element identifier(s) and associated access data.

The product or part thereof 1202 to be recycled, such as a battery or a part thereof, may be provided in association with the digital access element to a company performing a recycling step of a recycling process, such as dismantling 402 and mechanical treatment 414 described in the context of FIGs. 4A and 4B. The company may perform the recycling step to produce recycled material, such as black mass material. The product or part thereof 1202 may be connected to a code, such as a bar code or QR-code, having encoded the decentral access element identifier. The recycling company receiving the product or the part thereof 1202 may read the code through a code reader 1112. The code reader 1112 may be a smartphone running a code reading application, such as a QR code reader app. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral access element identifier (denoted hereinafter as DID1). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier (hereinafter denoted as UUID1). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the product/recycled material identifier. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the access data. The decentral access element identifier, decentral product identifier/decentral recycled material, product identifier/recycled material and access data may be determined by code reader 1112. For instance, the decentral access element identifier determined by the code reader 1112 may be a DID and the code reader 1112 may be configured to retrieve the associated DID document containing the decentral product identifier/decentral recycled material identifier and the access data, for example using a DID resolver (see also FIG. 13). In another instance, the product identifier/recycled material identifier is determined by code reader 1112 and used to retrieve the decentral access element identifier and associated access data, for example from decentral registry node 1102. Hence, code reader 1112 may be configured to retrieve the digital access element containing the decentral access element identifier and access data from decentral registry node 1102. Code reader 1112 may be configured to perform an authentication step with decentral registry node 1102. For instance, code reader 1112 may access a decentral IAM network node (not shown) and decentral IAM network node may be configured to provide an access token to code reader 1112 upon successful authentication. This access token may be used by code reader 1112 to access decentral registry node 1102. Code reader 1112 may provide a decentral participant identifier associated with a participant of the product ecosystem to decentral IAM network node for authentication.

Code reader 1112 may be configured to provide the decentral product identifier/decentral recycled material identifier (e.g. UUID1) to decentral network node 1104. Code reader 1112 may be configured to provide authentication data, such as a decentral participant identifier and optionally authentication data, such as an access token, to decentral network node 1104.

Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to verify the authentication data received from computing device 1112 with decentral IAM network node 1 1106. Upon successful authentication, decentral network node 1104 may be configured to access decentral registry node 1102 using decentral product identifier/decentral recycled material identifier received from computing device 1112 and to retrieve data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral product identifier/decentral recycled material identifier. Data related to a relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation pointing to the respective relationship representation. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may point to the decentral data providing network node associated with the respective relationship representation. For instance, the data related to the relationship representation associated with the product may comprise a digital representation pointing to decentral data providing network node(s) associated with material data of materials used to produce the product. In another instance, the data related to the relationship representation associated with the recycled material may comprise a digital representation pointing to a decentral data providing network node associated with the product data of the product or part thereof used to produce the recycled material. Decentral network node 1104 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with said decentral network node 1104 (not shown) may be configured to access respective decentral data providing network node(s) associated with the digital representation(s) and to request relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral relationship representation identifier(s) from said decentral data providing network node(s), for example as illustrated in FIG. 14. Examples of relationship representations are illustrated in FIG. 16A. Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to determine decentral material identifier(s) contained in said relationship representation(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 8. Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to access decentral registry node 1102 using the determined decentral material identifier(s) to determine access data associated with said decentral material identifier(s). Decentral network node 1104 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with said decentral network node 1104 (not shown) may be configured to access material data using the decentral material identifier, the access data and optionally the decentral participant identifier provided by computing device 1112 from respective decentral data providing network node(s). Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to determine data related to relationship representations associated with the determined decentral material identifiers as described previously.

In this example, decentral network node 1104 may receive a decentral product identifier associated with a battery from computing device 1112. The decentral network node 1104 may access decentral registry node 1102 using said decentral product identifier to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral product identifier. The determined data related to relationship representation(s) may contain a digital representation pointing to a decentral data providing network node associated with battery data. The battery data may be stored on a storage environment associated with the decentral data providing network node (not shown). The battery data may include a relationship representation indicating decentral material identifier(s) associated with material(s) used to produce the battery, such as the battery module, the BMS, etc. Decentral network node 1104 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node 1104 may be configured to access the relationship representation from the decentral data providing network node. Decentral network node 1104 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node 1104 may be configured to access battery data from the decentral data providing network node. Battery data may include the data structure illustrated in FIG 5. Access to the battery data may be authorized based on the decentral participant identifier provided by computing device 1112. Access to the battery data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node associated with said battery data. This ensures that battery data can only be accessed by authorized participants of the product ecosystem, hence avoiding uncontrolled access to the battery data.

Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to retrieve decentral material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the battery, such as the battery module, the BMS, the housing, etc. from the accessed relationship representation. Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to access data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral material identifier(s) from decentral registry node 1102 using the determined decentral material identifier(s). Decentral network node 1104 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access relationship representation(s), for example from decentral data providing network node 1 1204 associated with battery module data. The battery module data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage 1 1212) associated with the decentral data providing network node 1 1204. DT storage 1 1212 may be associated with or under control of the battery module producer. Decentral network node 1104 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access battery module data as described previously. Battery module data may include the amount of battery cells used to produce the battery module. Battery module data may include the amount of cathodes and anodes used to produce the battery module.

Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to retrieve decentral material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the battery module, such as the battery cells, from the accessed relationship representation. Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to access data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral material identifier(s) from decentral registry node 1102 using the determined decentral material identifier(s). Decentral network node 1104 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access relationship representation(s), for example from decentral data providing network node 2 1206 associated with battery cell data. The battery cell data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage 2 1214) associated with the decentral data providing network node 2 1206. DT storage 2 1214 may be associated with or under control of the battery cell producer. Decentral network node 1104 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access battery cell data as described previously. Battery cell data may include the amount of materials, such as cathode active materials and anode active materials, contained in a battery cell. Battery cell data may include the amount of cathode active materials and anode active materials, contained in the cathode and anode of the battery cell.

Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to retrieve decentral material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the battery cell, such as the cathode active material (CAM) and the anode active material (AAM), from the accessed relationship representation. Decentral network node 1104 may be configured to access data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral material identifier(s) from decentral registry node 1102 using the determined decentral material identifier(s). Decentral network node 1104 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access relationship representation(s), for example from decentral data providing network node 3 1208 associated with cathode active material data and decentral providing network node 4 1210 associated with anode active material data. The cathode active material data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage 3 1216) associated with the decentral data providing network node 3 1208. DT storage 3 1216 may be associated with or under control of the cathode active material producer. The anode active material data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage 4 1218) associated with the decentral data providing network node 4 1210. DT storage 4 1218 may be associated with or under control of the anode active material producer. Decentral network node 1104 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access cathode active material data and anode active material data as described previously. Cathode active material data may include material data, such as the chemical composition of the cathode active material. Anode active material data may include material data, such as the chemical composition of the anode active material.

The same procedure may be performed in case a decentral recycled material identifier is provided by computing device 1112 to decentral network node 1104. Hence, decentral network node 1104 may be configured to determine, based on the accessed relationship representation(s) and the linking between decentral identifier(s) of starting materials and resulting products/intermediate products, a bill of material tree associated with the product or part thereof or associated with the recycled material, for example as illustrated in FIG. 16B. The bill of material tree may represent relationships between all materials used to produce a product or part thereof and the product or part thereof. The bill of material tree may represent relationships between the product or part thereof used to produce the recycled material and all materials used to produce the product or part thereof. Recursive determination of decentral material identifier(s) using relationship representation(s) hence allows to obtain a material data of material(s) used to produce the product or part thereof. The material data gathered by decentral network node 1104 may be provided to computing device 1112. Computing device may display the gathered material data, for example within a graphical user interface as illustrated in FIG. 13.

FIG. 13 illustrates an embodiment of a user interface 1302 showing material data obtained as described the context of FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 8 and FIG. 12. The user interface 1302 may be displayed by a computing device initiating gathering of material data based on the decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier, such as computing device 1112 (see FIGs. 11 , 12). The user interface 1302 may display the digital access element identifier (PP identifier) and the decentral product identifier (dec. battery identifier).

The user interface 1302 may further display the amount of metals contained in the product or part thereof 1304. The amount of metals may be the total amount of metals contained in the product or part thereof. The amount of metals may be given in % by weight, based on the total weight of the product. The amount of metals may be given in % by weight, based on the total weight of a part of the product. The metals may stem from the cathode active material present within the cathodes of the battery.

The user interface 1302 may further display the amount of non-metal substances contained in the product or part thereof 1306. The amount of non-metal substances may be the total amount of non-metal substances contained in the product or part thereof. The amount of non-metal substances may be given in % by weight, based on the total weight of the product. The amount of non-metal substances may be given in % by weight, based on the total weight of a part of the product. The non-metal substances may stem from the anode active material present within the anodes of the battery.

The user interface may further include a button 1308 allowing to initiate the determination of the chemical composition of the product or part thereof, for example using the method as described in the context of FIGs. 6 to 8. The user interface may further include a button 1310 allowing to view data associated with a further product or part thereof.

FIG. 14 shows a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner to product data associated with a product or a part thereof using a decentral data consuming network node associated with a data user. The product data may include material data as described in the context of FIG. 7. The system shown in FIG. 14 may be used to implement the method described in the context of FIG. 7.

A digital access element may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 12. The digital access element may be provided to a decentral registry node 1102, for example as described in the context of FIG. 11. Decentral registry node 1102 may store decentral access element identifier(s) and associated access data.

The product or part thereof 1202 to be recycled, such as a battery or a part thereof, may be provided in association with the digital access element to a company performing a recycling step of a recycling process, such as dismantling 402 and mechanical treatment 414 described in the context of FIGs. 4A and 4B. The company may perform the recycling step to produce recycled material, such as black mass material. The product or part thereof 1202 may be connected to a code, such as a bar code or QR-code, having encoded the decentral access element identifier. The recycling company receiving the product or the part thereof 1202 may read the code through a code reader 1112 as described in the context of FIG. 12. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral access element identifier and/or the decentral product identifier or decentral recycled material identifier and/or the product/recycled material identifier and/or access data as described in the context of FIG. 12. The determined data, such as the decentral product identifier (e.g. UUID1) may be stored in storage 1402. The decentral access element identifier, decentral product identifier/decentral recycled material, product identifier/recycled material and access data may be determined by code reader 1112 as described in the context of FIG. 12.

Code reader 1112 may be configured to display determined/retrieved data on a user interface as illustrated by FIG. 13 and as described in the context of FIG. 12.

The decentral data consuming network node 1404 associated with the participant of the product ecosystem performing a recycling step on the product or part thereof may generate a request to access the digital twin or a part thereof (e.g. the product data or a part thereof containing the material data). The participant may be a participant of a participant network associated with a decentral network 1114, as described in the context of FIG. 20. Decentral data consuming network node 1404 may generate the request based on the data received from code reader 1112. For instance, decentral data consuming network node 1404 may generate the request based on the decentral product identifier received from code reader 1112. Decentral data consuming network node 1404 may generate the request based on the decentral access element identifier and/or decentral product identifier provided to storage 1402. For example, decentral data consuming network node 1404 may be configured to retrieve the decentral product identifier and access data from decentral registry node 1102 based on the decentral access element identifier stored in storage 1402. The request generated by decentral data consuming network node 1404 may include the decentral product identifier and a decentral participant identifier associated with decentral data consuming network node 1404. Decentral data consuming network node 1404 may be configured to determine the decentral data providing network node 1406 associated with the product data based on the access data provided by code reader 1112 or retrieved from decentral registry node 1102.

Decentral data consuming network node 1404 may sent the request to access the product data or a part thereof to the determined decentral data providing network node 1406 as signified by arrow 1410. The decentral data providing network node 1406 may be associated with the product producer or the producer of the part of the product. The decentral data providing network node 1406 may be associated with the production producing the product or the part thereof. The decentral data providing network node 1406 may be associated with the data owner of the product data. In addition to the request, authentication and/or authorization information may be provided by decentral data consuming network node 1404, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9.

The request may be authenticated (see FIG. 9). The request may be validated by the decentral data providing network node 1406, for example by retrieving access rules from a database of the decentral data providing network node 1406 based on the decentral product identifier and decentral participant identifier contained in the received request. At least part of the retrieved access rules may be applied to the received request. This allows to filter decentral data consuming network nodes requesting access based on the decentral participant identifier(s) associated with said network nodes. If the request is not valid, e.g. if the decentral data consuming network node 1404 is not authorized to access the product data, the peer-to-peer communication channel will be terminated by decentral data providing network node 1406 and no product data will be provided.

If the request is valid, decentral data providing network node 1406 may initiate contract negotiations with decentral data consuming network node 1404. Decentral data providing network node 1406 may provide an electronic contract to decentral data consuming network node 1404. The electronic contract may include access rule(s) associated with the decentral product identifier. This allows the data consumer to determine access and usage conditions associated with the desired data. Decentral data providing network node 1406 and decentral data consuming network node 1404 may be configured to negotiate an electronic contract and to sign the negotiated electronic contract. Use of the electronic contract ensures that the decentral data consuming network node 1404 and further systems handling the product data or a part thereof are complying to access rule(s) associated with the product data. Upon signature of the electronic contract, decentral data providing network node 1406 may retrieve or request the product data stored in DT storage 1408 based on the decentral product identifier contained in the received request as designated by arrows 1412 and 1414. Decentral data providing network node 1406 may apply determined access rule(s) to the retrieved or received product data. Afterwards decentral data providing network node 1406 may provide the product data or parts thereof according to the applied access rule(s) to the decentral data consuming network node 1404 as signified by arrow 1416.

The product data provided by decentral data providing network node 1406 may be stored in storage 1402 associated with the decentral data consuming network node 1404 according to the access rule(s) as signified by arrow 1418.

Through the decentral product identifier, the data, such as product data, can be uniquely associated with the product or a part thereof. Through the decentral network, the product data or a part thereof may be transferred between the producer of the product or the part thereof and a recycler of the product or the part thereof in a standardized and secure way, allowing the producer of the product or part thereof to control access to the product data or the part thereof by multiple decentral data consuming network nodes existing within the decentral network. This way, the product data or the part thereof can be shared with unique association to the product or part thereof and without central intermediary directly between the participants of the product ecosystem. This allows for sharing of product data under simplified and customizable conditions without compromising data security and data sovereignty.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a digital access element including DID owner data, DID document data and decentral identity infrastructure. The product may be a battery or a part thereof, for example as described in the context of FIG. 1 .

The decentral identifier may be a Decentralized Identifier (DID). The decentral identifier-based digital access element may in this case be a DID document 1504 associated with the DID. Besides the DID document 1504 serving as digital access element, FIG. 15 shows a DID owner data element 1502 including decentral identifier-based owner data. Generally, the decentral identifier-based owner data may include the decentral identifier associated with a subject such as digital twin data set(s) and may include one or more authentication mechanism(s). The decentral identifier-based owner data 1502 may include owner data that is electronically owned and controlled by the DID owner. In this context electronically owned may refer to data that is stored in an owner repository or wallet. Such data may be securely stored and/or managed on an organizational server or client device. The decentral identifier-based owner data 1502 may include a DID, a private key and a public key. The DID owner may own and control the DID that represents an identity associated with the DID subject, a private key and public key pair that are associated with the DID. DID may be understood as an identifier and authentication information associated with or uniquely linked to the identifier.

The DID subject may be a raw material, a basic substance, a chemical product, an end product or a recycled material resulting from performing at least one recycling step on a product or part thereof. The DID subject may be a machine, a system, or a device used for producing the raw material, the basic substance, the chemical product, the intermediate product, the end product or the recycled material, or a collection of such machine(s), device(s) and/or system(s). The DID owner may be a supply chain participant or a manufacturer such as a chemical manufacturer producing chemicals. The DID owner may be an upstream participant in the supply chain of the chemical manufacturer such as a supplier that supplies raw chemical products or precursors to produce the chemical product. The DID owner may be a downstream participant in the supply chain of the chemical manufacturer such as a customer that consumes chemical products to produce an intermediate product, a component, a component assembly, the end product or the recycled material. The DID owner may be any participant of the product ecosystem including raw chemical product supplier, intermediate chemical products manufacturer, intermediate part manufacturer, component manufacturer, component assembly manufacturer, end product manufacturer or recycler performing at least one recycling step of a recycling process associated with the end product.

The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and/or the DID owner. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the DID subject and/or DID owner. The identifier may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The identifier may be a locally or globally unique identifier for the product or part thereof, for any material used to produce the product or part thereof, and the recycled material.

The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and the DID owner. Preferably, the DID is unique to the DID subject and/or DID owner. The DID may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The DID may be a locally or globally unique identifier for any of the above mentioned possible DID subjects. The DID may also be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Moreover, the DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a random string of numbers and letters for increased security. In one embodiment, the DID may be a string of 128 letters and numbers e.g. according to the scheme did:method name: method specific-did such as did:example:ebfeb1f712ebc6f1 c276e12ec21 . The DID may be decentralized ID independent of a centralized, third-party management system and under the control of the DID owner. The digital access element as DID document 1504 may be associated with the DID, i.e. the DID included in the decentral identifier-based owner data 1502. Accordingly, the digital access element may include a reference to the DID, which is associated with the DID subject that is described by the DID document 1504. The DID document 1504 may also include an authentication information such as the public key. The public key may be used by third-party entities that are given permission by the DID owner/subject to access information and data owned by the DID owner/subject. The public key may also be used for verifying that the DID owner, in fact, owns or controls the DID. The DID document may include authentication information, authorization information e.g. to authorize third party entities to read the DID document or some part of the DID document e.g. without giving the third party the right to prove ownership of the DID.

The digital access element 1504 may include one or more representations that digitally link to the digital twin data set(s), e.g. by way of service endpoints. A service endpoint may include a network address at which a service operates on behalf of the DID owner. In particular, the service endpoints may refer to services, such as decentral data providing network node(s), of the DID owner that give access to the digital twin or a part thereof. Such services may include services to read or analyze chemical product data contained in the digital twin or the part thereof. Chemical product data may include chemical product declaration data, chemical product safety data, certificate of analysis data, emission data, product carbon footprint data, product environmental footprint data, chemical product specification data, product information, technical application data, production data, preference data associated with the chemical product or combinations thereof.

The digital access element 1504 may include various other information such metadata specifying when the digital access element was created, when it was last modified and/or when it expires.

The DID and digital access element 1504 may be associated with a data registry node such as a centralized data service system or a decentralized data service system 1506, e.g. a distributed ledger or blockchain or a decentralized file system. The distributed ledger or blockchain may be used to store a representation of the DID that points to the digital access element 1504. A representation of the DID may be stored on distributed computing nodes of the distributed ledger or blockchain 1506. For example, DID hash may be stored on multiple computing nodes of the distributed ledger and point to the location of the digital access element 1504. In some embodiments, the digital access element 1504 may be stored on the distributed ledger 1506. Each of the computing nodes may store a copy of the distributed ledger 1506. In this way, each DID hash can be stored redundantly, thereby allowing for an increased data safety. DIDs associated with a plurality of different digital access element 1504 may be included in the distributed ledger 1506. In some embodiments, the digital access element 1504 may be stored on the distributed ledger 1506, i.e. either additionally or alternatively to the associated DID representation being stored on the distributed ledger 1506. In other embodiments, the digital access element 1504 may be stored in a data storage (not illustrated) that is associated with the distributed ledger or blockchain or decentralized file system.

The distributed ledger or blockchain 1506 may be any decentralized, distributed network that includes various computing nodes that are in communication with each other. For example, the distributed ledger 1506 may include a first distributed computing node, a second distributed computing node, a third distributed computing node, and any number of additional distributed computing nodes (not shown). The distributed ledger or blockchain 1506 may include known technology stacks like Bitcoin (see e.g. Bitcoin documentation of November 11 , 2022 published https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_documentation), Ethereum (see e.g. Ethereum documentation of August 15, 2022 published on https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/), Solana (see e.g. Solana documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https://spl.solana.com/), Polygon (see e.g. Polygon documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https://wiki.polygon.technology/) or other implementations with varying degree of data transactions performed on the distributed ledger. The description of the example framework is only for illustrative purposes and shall not be considered limiting.

FIG. 16A illustrates an example of relationships between digital twins and associated relationship representations specifying relationships between a product or a part thereof and materials used to produce the product or the part thereof. The product may be an end-product or a part thereof. The product may be an end-of-life product or a part thereof. The product may be a battery or a part thereof.

The digital twin (DT) of the product 1626, in this example the battery, may include a decentral digital twin identifier ID8, such as described in the context of FIG. 1 . The digital twin (DT) of the product may include a relationship representation 1628 containing the decentral digital twin identifier ID8 and a decentral identifier ID7 associated with the battery pack used to produce the battery. The relationship representation may further include decentral identifiers associated with the battery management system (BMS) and further components used to produce the battery (not shown). The relationship representation 1628 may be associated with data related to the relationship representation. Said data may be used by the decentral network node to gather the relationship representation from the decentral data consuming network node associated with said relationship representation (e.g. associated with a storage environment storing said relationship representation) as described in the context of FIG. 12. The data related to the relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation pointing to said relationship representation. The data related to the relationship representation may be associated with data related to the digital twin. Data related to the digital twin may include the decentral digital twin identifier and digital representation pointing to the digital twin or parts thereof. Data related to the digital twin may further include decentral identifier(s) associated with data set(s) contained in the digital twin and respective digital representations pointing to said data set(s) or parts thereof. One such data set may correspond to the relationship representation 1628, e.g. the decentral identifier may correspond to the decentral relationship representation identifier mentioned previously.

Decentral identifier ID7 contained in relationship representation 1628 may be associated with a digital twin (DT) of the battery pack 1622. The digital twin of the battery pack 1622 may include the decentral identifier ID7, such as described in the context of FIG. 1. The digital twin (DT) of the battery pack may include a relationship representation 1624 contaning decentral digital twin identifier ID7 and a decentral identifier ID6 associated with one or more battery cell(s) used to produce the battery pack. The relationship representation may further include decentral identifiers associated with the further components used to produce the battery pack (not shown). The relationship representation 1624 may be associated with data related to the relationship representation as previously described. Said data may be used by the decentral network node to gather the relationship representation from the decentral data consuming network node associated with said relationship representation as previously described.

Decentral identifier ID6 contained in relationship representation 1624 may be associated digital twin (DT) of one or more battery cell(s) 1618. Relationship representation 1624 may contain further decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more digital twin(s) of further battery cell(s) used to produce the battery pack (not shown). The digital twin of the one or more battery cell(s) may include the decentral identifier ID6, such as described in the context of FIG. 1 . The digital twin (DT) of the one or more battery cell(s) may include a relationship representation 1620 containing decentral digital twin identifier ID6, decentral digital twin identifier ID4 associated with the cathode active material used to produce the battery cell and a decentral identifier ID5 associated with the anode active material used to produce the battery cell. The relationship representation may further include decentral identifiers associated with the further components used to produce the battery cell(s). The relationship representation 1620 may be associated with data related to the relationship representation as previously described. Said data may be used by the decentral network node to gather the relationship representation from the decentral data consuming network node associated with said relationship representation as previously described.

Decentral identifier ID5 contained in relationship representation 1620 may be associated with digital twin (DT) of the anode active material 1612. The digital twin of the anode active material may include the decentral identifier ID5, such as described in the context of FIG. 1. The digital twin (DT) of the anode active material may include a relationship representation 1612 containing decentral digital twin identifier ID5 and a decentral identifier ID2 associated with raw materials used to produce the anode active material, such as graphene. The relationship representation 1614 may be associated with data related to the relationship representation as previously described. Said data may be used by the decentral network node to gather the relationship representation from the decentral data consuming network node associated with said relationship representation as previously described.

Decentral identifier ID4 contained in relationship representation 1620 may be associated with digital twin (DT) of the cathode active material (CAM) 1608. The digital twin of the CAM may include the decentral identifier ID4, such as described in the context of FIG. 1. The digital twin (DT) of the cathode active material may include a relationship representation 1610 containing decentral digital twin identifier ID4 and a decentral identifier ID3 associated with precursor material(s) used to produce the cathode active material, such as described in the context of FIG. 4A. The relationship representation 1610 may be associated with data related to the relationship representation as previously described. Said data may be used by the decentral network node to gather the relationship representation from the decentral data consuming network node associated with said relationship representation as previously described.

Decentral identifier ID3 contained in relationship representation 1610 may be associated with digital twin(s) (DT(s)) of one or more precursor material(s) 1604. Relationship representation 1610 may contain further decentral identifier(s) associated with one or more digital twin(s) of further precursor material(s) used to produce the CAM (not shown). The digital twin of the precursor material may include the decentral identifier ID3, such as described in the context of FIG. 1. The digital twin (DT) of the precursor material may include a relationship representation 1606 containing decentral digital twin identifier ID3 and a decentral identifier ID1 associated with raw material used to produce the precursor material, such as described in the context of FIG. 4A. The relationship representation 1606 may be associated with data related to the relationship representation as previously described. Said data may be used by the decentral network node to gather the relationship representation from the decentral data consuming network node associated with said relationship representation as previously described.

Linking of digital twin(s) via relationship representation(s) hence allows to mirror the supply and production chain of an end product, thus allowing to create, using said relationship representations, a bill of material tree with the end-product representing the top node of the tree and raw materials used in the production of the end-product representing the leaf nodes of the tree. Such a bill of material tree obtained from said relationship representations is illustrated in FIG. 16B described in the following. The bill of material tree may be used to efficiently determine one or more particular materials used during the production of the end product, hence allowing to determine the composition of a recycled material produced from the end product using information on material(s) contained in the product determined via said relationship representations.

FIG. 16B illustrates an embodiment of part of a bill of material tree obtained from the relationship representations described in FIG. 16A. The bill of material tree is illustrated for an end product in the form of a battery. As mentioned in the context of Fig. 1 , the choice of a battery as an example of an end- of-life product is arbitrary and shall not be construed limiting.

The battery as end product represents the top node 1630 of the bill of material tree. Depending on the number of materials used to produce the product, branching occurs at the next level downwards from the top node. Each material used to produce the product in the next level corresponds to a node on the particular level. For instance, each material used to produce the battery in the top level corresponds to a node in the level below the top level. In this example, the battery may be produced from a battery pack 1632 and a battery management system (BMS) 1634, each material being represented by nodes in the bill of material tree. The battery may be produced from further materials (not shown). The battery pack 1632 may be produced from one or more materials, such as battery cells 1 represented by node 1638 and battery cells 2 represented by node 1640. The BMS 1634 may be produced from further material(s) represented by further node(s) 1636. Battery cells 1 and 2 may in turn be produced from cathode active materials represented by nodes 1642, 1646 and anode active materials represented by node 1644, 1648. Suitable anode and cathode active materials are, for example, described in the context of FIG. 1. The cathode active materials may in turn be produced from precursor materials represented by nodes 1650, 1658 which in turn may be produced from different raw materials represented by nodes 1652, 1654, 1660. The anode active material may likewise be produced from one or more raw materials represented by nodes 1656, 1662.

This example illustrates an exemplary bill of material tree for a battery and should not be considered limiting. Any combination of nodes and any number of nodes may be possible depending on the specific materials used to produce the battery.

FIG. 17 illustrates a flow chart of a method for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The subsequent recycling step may follow the recycling step resulting in the recycled material, e.g. the subsequent recycling step may use the recycled material resulting from a preceding recycling step. The preceding recycling step may be the first recycling step within the recycling process. The preceding recycling step may be any recycling step apart from the last recycling step within the recycling process.

In block 1702, material availability data associated with the recycled material and target composition data may be provided. Target composition data may contain target data on one or more chemical compound(s) to be present within an input of recycled material into the subsequent recycling step. The target composition data may describe the target chemical composition of a batch of recycled material or the target chemical composition of a continuous feed of recycled material. Target data on one or more chemical compound(s) to be present within the recycled material may include chemical compound identifier(s) and relative or absolute amounts or ranges of amounts of chemical compound(s) associated with said chemical compound identifier(s). Chemical compound identifier(s) may include the name of the chemical compound(s), the type of the chemical compound(s) and/or IDs of the chemical compound(s). The target composition data may be determined based on the operation data associated with the subsequent recycling step. Operation data may include process specific data associated with the subsequent recycling step. Process specific data may include data related to the extraction rate of chemical compounds from the recycled material. Exemplary target composition data may include the following data: 10 to 50 weight % nickel, 0.1 to 15 weight % cobalt, 0 to 5 weight % iron, 0 to 15 weight % lithium, 0 to 15 weight % manganese, based in each case on total weight of recycled material. A further exemplary target composition data may include the following data on one or more chemical compounds: 0.1 to 10 weight % lithium, from 0 to 60 weight % nickel, 0 to 20 weight % cobalt, 0 to 20 % percent copper, 0 to 20 weight % aluminum, 0 to 20 weight % iron, and 0 to 20 weight % manganese, based in each case on the total weight of the recycled material.

Target composition data may contain the percentage of recycled compound per defined amount of input of recycled material into the subsequent recycling step. The recycled compound may be a metal compound, such as a lithium compound, a nickel compound, a copper compound, a manganese compound or a combination thereof. The target composition data may further contain the recycling rate associated with the subsequent recycling step. The recycling rate may be defined for each chemical compound or a group of chemical compounds. The recycling rate may be determined by comparing the chemical components and respective amounts present in the recycled material prior to performing the subsequent recycling step to chemical components and respective amounts obtained after performing the subsequent recycling step.

The target composition data may contain upper and/or lower concentration limits of chemical compounds. The upper and/or lower concentration limits may be given in % by weight or volume per weight, based on the total weight of the recycled material input into the subsequent recycling step.

Providing the target composition data may include providing a plant identifier associated with the plant performing the subsequent recycling step and providing target composition data associated with said plant identifier.

Use of the target composition data ensures that the recycling rate associated with the subsequent recycling step is optimized. For instance, the extraction rate of metals and metal compounds from the recycled material may be optimized in the subsequent recycling step using the target composition data. For example, feed of unsuitable amounts or concentrations of chemical compounds present within the recycled material to the subsequent recycling step may be avoided, hence avoiding reduced extraction of metal compounds from the feed of recycled material due to unsuitable amounts of chemical compounds present in said feed.

Recycled material availability data may relate to storage data associated with available recycled material. The storage data may be generated upon providing the recycled material to a physical material storage. The storage data may be generated prior to or after providing the recycled material to the physical material storage. Storage data may include the amount of recycled material and associated recycled material identifier(s). The storage data may be stored in a storage environment. The recycled material identifier may correspond to the decentral recycled material identifier. The recycled material identifier may correspond to any identifier uniquely identifying the recycled material. The recycled material identifier may be encoded or be associated with a physical identifier attached to the recycled material, such as the packaging of the recycled material. Storage data may further include data related to the location of the recycled material within the material storage. This allows to determine the location of the respective recycled material for retrieval and feed of said material to the subsequent recycling step. The availability data may further be associated with plants. For instance, certain recycled material may be available from plants performing the previous recycling step in the vicinity of the plant performing the subsequent recycling step, such as in an area of multiple 100 kilometers or less.

Providing the recycled material availability data may include retrieving said data from the storage environment upon initiation the method.

In block 1704, chemical composition data may be provided based on the material availability data provided in block 1702. Providing the chemical composition data may include determining said data, for example as described in the context of FIGs. 6 to 8 using the recycled material identifier(s) associated with available recycled material. The recycled material identifier(s) may be included in the recycled material availability data as described in the context of block 1702. Providing the chemical composition data may include gathering chemical composition data from the provided recycled material availability data. For instance, the provided recycled material availability data may contain respective chemical composition data and may hence be used to gather (e.g. to retrieve or receive) said chemical composition data.

In block 1712, target emission data and/or total target emission data may be provided, this block being generally optional. Emission target data target may include emission target data per recycled material batch. This way the feed data may be tailored to specific emissions related to recycled material batches. This allows flexible use of recycled material batches and reduction of emissions related to the subsequent recycling step. The total emission target data may be related to the recycled material obtained after the recycling process and/or at least one operation property of the plant(s) performing subsequent recycling step(s) and producing the product. This way the feed data may be tailored with respect to the production process for the new product. This allows flexible use of recycled materials and reduction of emissions related to recycled materials used to produce new products as well as production conditions. Target emission data and total target emission data may be stored in a storage environment. Target emission data and total target emission data may be gathered (e.g. retrieved or received) from said storage environment.

In block 1706, feed data for the subsequent recycling step may be determined based on the provided chemical composition data, the target composition data and optionally the target emission data or total target emission data. Determining the feed data may include optimizing the chemical composition of recycled material using the target composition data. Optimizing may include determining a mixing ratio of different batches of recycled material having different chemical compositions such that the target composition data is met. This ensures a continuous chemical composition of the recycled material feed into the subsequent recycling step irrespective of the composition of single batches of recycled material, hence ensuring a consistent recycling rate in the subsequent recycling step. Thus, variations in the chemical composition of the recycled material can be compensated, hence avoiding a negative influence of variations in the chemical composition of the recycled material on the subsequent recycling step and thus increasing the overall recycling rate associated with the product or the part thereof.

Optimizing may include determining a mixing ratio of different batches of recycled material having different chemical compositions such that the provided target composition data and the provided target emission data and/or total target emission data is met. This ensures a continuous chemical composition of the recycled material feed into the subsequent recycling step irrespective of the composition of single batches of recycled material while meeting predefined emission targets.

The determined feed data may include amounts of recycled material and associated recycled material identifiers, such as decentral recycled material identifiers. The amounts of recycled material may result from the optimization process described previously. The determined feed data may include a gathering of one or more recycled material identifiers associated with the recycled material and optionally chemical composition data associated with the recycled material identifiers. The determined feed data may include a gathering of one or more recycled material identifiers associated with different batches of recycled material determined via the optimization process previously described and optionally chemical composition data associated with the recycled material identifiers. The recycled material identifier may be any identifier uniquely identifying the recycled material. The recycled material identifier may be a decentral recycled material identifier as described previously. The recycled material identifier may be a recycled material identifier used within one or more recycling steps of the recycling process. The recycled material identifier may be a recycled material identifier used within the plant performing the subsequent recycling step. The gathering may be regarded as a recycled material identifier package including the recycled material identifier(s) and optionally the chemical composition data associated with said recycled material identifier(s). Examples of such recycled material identifier packages are illustrated in FIGs. 18A and 18B. The recycled material identifier package may be associated with a package identifier allowing retrieval of the recycled material identifier package. The recycled material identifier package may be regarded as control or operation data of the subsequent recycling step since the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step is based on recycled material identifiers contained in said package. The recycled material identifier package may be stored on a storage environment. The recycled material identifier package may be used to schedule a recycling run of the subsequent recycling step as described in block 1710. The recycled material identifier package may be assigned to a plant, for example by interrelating the recycled material identifier package with a plant identifier.

In block 1708, it may be determined whether the determined feed data will allow to meet provided target emission data and/or total target emission data. This may include providing operation data associated with the plant performing the subsequent recycling step and determining emission data associated with the recycled material obtained from the subsequent recycling step using the determined feed data and operation data. If the provided target emission data and/or total emission data is meet, the method may proceed to block 1710. Otherwise, the method may return to block 1706 and may repeat block 1706.

In block 1710, the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step may be operated or controlled based on the determined feed data. This may include providing the feed data to the respective plant performing the subsequent recycling step. This may include providing the package identifier associated with the respective recycled material identifier package to the plant performing the subsequent recycling step. The operating system of said plant may gather the recycled material identifier package based on the received package identifier and may operate the feed of material based on the recycled material identifiers and further data contained in the feed data, such as amounts associated with the respective recycled material identifier(s) contained in the recycled material identifier package. Operating the feed may include generating control data to control the feed of recycled material based on the determined feed data.

By using chemical composition data having a high accuracy in combination with target composition data, feed data may be generated which allows to tailor inputs of recycled material to subsequent recycling steps. This way, the quality of the recyclate resulting from said subsequent recycling step can be optimized, emission targets of the subsequent recycling step or of the recyclate resulting from said step can be fulfilled, and the recycling efficiency of the subsequent recycling step can be optimized. For example, tailoring inputs allows to overcome shortages of recycled materials having a chemical composition required to efficiently perform the subsequent recycling step, to adapt the chemical composition of the recycled material such that emission targets, recycling rates and recycling efficiency are fulfilled, and to adapt the chemical composition of the recycled material such that emissions associated with the subsequent recycling step(s) are reduced. FIG. 18A illustrates an example data structure based on decentral recycled material identifiers for feed data in connection with battery identifiers. Feed data 1802 may include a gathering of recycled material identifier(s) of recycled material(s) that result in a chemical composition processable within a subsequent recycling step. Feed data 1802 may hence include a collection of recycled material identifiers that are associated with a chemical composition processable in the subsequent recycling step. A package identifier, such as ID1 , may be generated and may be uniquely associated with such package. The recycled material identifiers associated with the chemical composition processable in the subsequent recycling step may be linked to the package identifier. The package identifier may hence be associated with the recycled materials or batches of recycled material that are processable together within the subsequent recycling step. In addition, the feed data 1802 may include the amount of recycled materials associated with recycled material identifiers contained in the package or associated with the package identifier. The feed data 1802 may include plant identifier(s) per package identifier or package of recycled material identifiers signifying the recycling plant the recycled materials are to be processed in the subsequent recycling step.

Based on the chemical composition data, recycled material may be identified that may be processable within the subsequent recycling step. This way, recycled material to be treated in a subsequent recycling step may be gathered virtually by way of the recycled material identifier(s) associated with such chemical composition data. For such determination different embodiments are possible. Here only a few examples are described as illustrative embodiments, which are not considered limiting.

In one example an optimizing logic may be used to determine recycled material identifier packages related to chemical compositions processable within the subsequent recycling step. Such optimizing may be based on the chemical composition data associated with the recycled material and target composition data provided to determine the feed data. For optimizing, multiple algorithms reaching from discrete optimization algorithms to continuous optimization algorithms may be employed.

For instance, the optimizing may be conducted by determining a mixing ratio of recycled materials associated with a defined chemical composition to achieve the provided target composition data. Hence, the number of recycled materials to be mixed and their respective mixing ratios are determined such that the resulting chemical composition matches the provided target composition data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 17. This determination may be used to generate feed data 1802. The feed data may include a gathering of recycled material identifier(s) associated with recycled material(s) determined during the matching operation. In this example, the feed data includes recycled material identifiers ID1 to IDn. Each recycled material identifier is associated with a batch of recycled material which in turn may be associated with end-product(s) used to produce the recycled material. Each end- product may be associated with a respective decentral end-product identifier, such as battery ID1 to battery IDn.

In another example, the optimization may be based on recycling plant data contained in the target chemical composition data. For instance, recycling plant data may include a recycling plant identifier and operation data associated with the recycling plant performing the subsequent recycling step. This way the optimization may allow to consider the recycling efficiency of respective recycling plants and allows to determine feed data for a respective recycling plant. Respective, feed data may be provided that includes recycled material identifier(s), amounts associated with the respective recycled material identifier(s) and recycling plant data.

FIG. 18B illustrates an example data structure based on decentral recycled material identifiers for feed data in connection with component identifiers. Feed data 1834 may include a gathering of recycled material identifier(s) of recycled material(s) that result in a chemical composition processable within a subsequent recycling step. Feed data 1834 may hence include a collection of recycled material identifiers that are associated with a chemical composition processable in the subsequent recycling step. A package identifier, such as ID1 , may be generated and may be uniquely associated with such package. The recycled material identifiers associated with the chemical composition processable in the subsequent recycling step may be linked to the package identifier. The package identifier may hence be associated with the recycled materials or batches of recycled material that are processable together within the subsequent recycling step. In addition, the feed data 1834 may include the amount of recycled materials associated with recycled material identifiers contained in the package or associated with the package identifier. The feed data 1834 may include plant identifier(s) per package identifier or package of recycled material identifiers signifying the recycling plant the recycled materials are to be processed in the subsequent recycling step.

Based on the chemical composition data, recycled material may be identified that may be processable within the subsequent recycling step. This way, recycled material to be treated in a subsequent recycling step may be gathered virtually by way of the recycled material identifier(s) associated with such chemical composition data as described in the context of FIG. 18A. In contrast to FIG. 18A, the recycled material batches may be associated with component identifiers. The component identifiers may be associated with components of a product, such as a battery pack, used to produce the recycled material.

FIG. 19 illustrates part of an example system for operating a recycling process in the recycling chain of an end-of-life product including an example system for operating or controlling the feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof. The end-of-life product may be a battery or a part thereof as described in the context of FIG. 1. The recycling chain may include various recycling steps, such as collecting and/or sorting steps, discharge and/or disassembly steps, storage, mechanical treatment steps and hydrometallurgy steps to recover metals from metal containing end-of-life products, such as described in the context of FIGs. 4A and 4B.

The collector system 1902 may be configured to monitor and/or control collection of end-of-life products or parts thereof. The collector system 1902 may be configured to monitor and/or control collection end- of-life products or parts thereof by material configuration, e.g. by chemical composition of one or more materials contained within the end-of-life product or a part thereof. This way the sorting of end-of-life products or parts thereof may be done directly on collection making a further sorting process redundant. The collector system 1902 may be configured to collect end-of-life products or parts thereof and provide to provide decentral product identifier(s) for classification by material class. The classified decentral product identifiers may be provided to a sorting system 1902. Such providing may be directly from the collector system to the sorting system or indirectly via a computing environment to the sorting system. The collector system 1902 may be configured to collect end-of-life products or parts thereof, to classify associated decentral product identifiers by material configuration, to store classified decentral product identifiers and to provide decentral product identifiers per material class to the sorting system 1902. The decentral product identifiers associated with one classification may be provided to the sorting system 1902. The sorting system 1902 may be configured to sort collected end-of-life products or parts thereof associated with one or more class(es). The sorting system 1902 may be configured to provide decentral product identifiers for classification by material configuration and to sort end-of-life products or parts thereof based on the material configuration. The decentral product identifiers associated with one material classification may be provided by a collector system or computing environment.

The end-of-life product or parts thereof collected and/or sorted by collector and/or sorter system 1902 may be provided to a discharger and/or disassembly system 1904. The discharger and/or disassembly system 1904 may be configured to discharge and/or disassemble end-of-life products or parts thereof received from collector and/or sorter system 1902. Discharge and/or disassembly may be performed as described in the context of FIG. 4A.

The disassembled part(s) may be connected to a code, such as a bar code or QR-code, having encoded the decentral product identifier. ID reader 1906 may be configured to read the code attached to the disassembled part(s). The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral product identifier associated with the disassembled part. In this example, the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral product identifier associated with the battery pack, the battery module or battery cell. The determined data, such as the decentral product identifier may be provided to chemical composition determinator 1910.

The disassembled part(s) may be stored in material storage 1908. Material storage 1908 may be configured to store disassembled part(s) produced by discharge and/or disassembly system 1904. The material storage may be connected to a computing environment configured to generate storage data. Storage data may include decentral product identifier(s) associated with stored disassembled part(s). Storage data may include amounts associated with said decentral product identifier(s). The storage data may be generated upon or after storage of the disassembled part(s). The computing environment may be configured to control storage of disassembled part(s) based on storage data. For instance, the storage capacity may be monitored by the computing environment and may be used to control feed of dissembled part(s) from disassembly and/or discharge system 1904 to material storage 1908 and removal of dissembled part(s) from material storage 1908 upon feeding said disassembled part(s) to mechanical treatment system 1914. Use of a material storage 1908 allows to ensure sufficient dissembled parts are available for operating the mechanical treatment system 1914 in a continuous or batch-wise manner.

The material storage 1908 may be connected to a further ID reader system 1912. The ID reader system 1912 may be configured to read the code connected to the disassembled part that is scheduled to be feed into the mechanical treatment system as described in the context of ID reader system 1906. The decentral product identifier identified using the data generated by ID reader system 1912 may be provided to chemical composition determinator 1910. The disassembled parts scanned by ID reader system 1912 may be feed into mechanical treatment system 1914. Feed of disassembled part(s) may be controlled by the operating system of the mechanical treatment system 1914. Feed may be controlled based on storage data associated with material storage 1908. Storage data may be accessed by the operating system of the mechanical treatment system 1914 and may be used to generate feed data. Feed data may include decentral product identifiers associated with disassembled parts to be fed to mechanical treatment system 1914. The decentral product identifier(s) may be gathered into a decentral product identifier package by the operating system, such as described in the context of FIGs. 18A and 18B. Mechanical treatment of disassembled parts may be performed as described in the context of FIG. 4A and 4B. The recycled material resulting from the mechanical treatment may be black mass material 1916. The black mass material may contain metallic Ni and Co phases, manganese oxide phases and lithium salts like LOH, Li2CO3, LiF, LiAIO2, Li3PO4. The composition of the black mass material 1916 may depend on the composition of the cathode active material and the anode active material present within the disassembled battery part, such as the battery pack, battery module or battery cell. The black mass material 1916 may be packaged and the packaging may comprise a physical identifier element, such as a code. The physical identifier may be assigned to a decentral recycled material identifier associated with the produced black mass material, such as a produced batch of black mass material. The recycled material identifier associated with the recycled material may be provided to chemical composition determinator 1910.

Chemical composition determinator 1910 may be configured to determine the chemical composition data associated with the produced black mass material 1916 based on provided decentral product identifier(s) or decentral recycled material identifier(s) as described in the context of FIGs. 6 to 8. Chemical composition determinator 1910 may be connected to decentral network node 1104 configured to gather material data based on decentral product identifier(s)/decentral recycled material identifier(s) received from chemical composition determinator 1910 as described in the context of FIG. 12. The material data gathered by decentral network node 1104 may be provided to chemical composition determinator 1910 as described in the context of FIG. 12. Chemical composition determinator 1910 may be connected to a storage environment storing operation data 1918. The operation data may be used to determine the chemical composition data from the gathered material data and the operation data as described in the context of FIGs. 6 to 8.

The recycled material 1916 may be provided to a material storage (not shown) as previously described. Storage data may be generated as previously described. The storage data may contain recycled material identifier(s) and associated amounts of recycled material stored in material storage. The material storage may be connected to an ID reader system configured to read the code physically attached to the recycled material and to provide data to the computing environment operating the material storage. The material storage may be connected to feed data generator 1920.

Feed data generator 1920 may be configured to generate feed data to control the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step, in this example the base metal refinery 1926. The feed data may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 17. Feed data generator 1920 may receive material availability data from the operating system of the material storage (not shown). Feed data generator 1920 may receive target composition data from storage environment 1922. Feed data generator 1920 may receive emission target data from storage environment 1924. Feed data generator 1920 may generate feed data, for example as illustrated in FIGs. 18A and 18B. Feed data generator 1920 may be part of the operating system of subsequent recycling plant, such as the base metal refinery 1926. Feed data generator 1920 may generate recycled material identifier packages as described in the context of FIGs. 17 to 18B. The feed data generated by feed data generator 1920 may be used to control the feed of recycled material 1916 to the subsequent recycling step 1926. The subsequent recycling step may perform a recycling operation on the feed of recycled material. Recycled material obtained after subsequent recycling step 1926 may be used to produce new materials, such as precursor materials for cathode active materials (CAM) as described in the context of FIG. 4A. The feed data generated by feed data generator 1920 may allow to optimize the subsequent recycling step by ensuring that the chemical composition of the recycled material feed matches the operating parameters of the subsequent recycling step. Hence, mixing of different recycled materials may be performed to obtain a chemical composition of the recycled material mix that matches the operating parameters of the subsequent recycling step to obtain an optimized recycling yield in the subsequent recycling step. This allows to use recycled material having varying chemical compositions without negatively impacting the recycling yield of the subsequent recycling step which is highly dependent on the chemical composition of the recycled material feed. FIG. 20 illustrates an example of a participant network of a battery ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for transfer of product data associated with produced products used within the product ecosystem and material data associated with material used to produce the products.

The participant network 2024 of the battery ecosystem associated may be associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network 1114 for exchange of product data associated with produced products and material data associated with materials used to produce such products. The participant network 2026 may include one or more network participants 2008 to 2022 associated with decentral participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404. The network participants may be part of a battery ecosystem including batteries. The battery ecosystem may include a miner 2008, a refiner 2010, a precursor cathode active material (PCAM) and cathode active material (CAM) producer 2012, a battery producer 2014, an endproduct producer 2016, an EOL product collector 2018, a black mass producer 2020 and a metal extractor 2022. The battery ecosystem may allow to use materials, such as metals and metal salts, resulting from recycling of end-of-life batteries or components thereof to produce new products, such as PCAM and CAM. The product ecosystem may be associated with the production and/or recycling of batteries.

The product ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 20 is a mere example and may include more or less network participants. For example, the pCAM producer may be separate from the CAM producer. Likewise, the black mass producer 2020, the metal extractor 2022 and the pCAM and CAM producer 2012 may be a single entity. The participant network 2026 may include a battery supply chain. The battery ecosystem may allow to use materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life batteries to produce new products, such as pCAM and CAM. The battery ecosystem may be associated with the production and/or recycling of physical batteries or parts thereof.

The participant(s) of the decentral participant network 2024 may be associated with the production the batteries, the production of battery containing end products and/or recycling of the batteries or parts thereof. The network participant may be a manufacturer of physical products, such as miner 2008, refiner 2010, PCAM & CAM producer 2012, battery producer 2014, end-product producer 2016 and/or a participant of a recycling chain associated with the end of life battery or a part thereof, such as EOL product collector 2018, black mass producer 2020 and metal extractor 2022. The network participant may be associated with a participant node 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 and a decentral participant identifier related to an associated participant node(s) 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404. The decentral participant identifier may uniquely identify the decentral network participant and its associated decentral participant node within the decentral peer-to-peer network 1114.

The participant(s) of the participant network 2024 may be connected via material flows 2004, 2006. The material flow may be a loop material flow 2004. The loop material flow 2004 may be a closed loop material flow. A closed loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce the same products, such as batteries, the recycled material is obtained from via recycling. The loop material flow 2004 may be an open loop material flow. An open loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce different products than the one the recycled material is obtained from. The material flow may be a linear material flow 2006 (e.g. not including recycling). The material flow 2004, 2006 may correspond to the flow of product from one participant of the participant network 2024 to the downstream participant of the participant network 2026. The material flow 2004, 2006 may refer to a continuous or a discontinuous flow of material or product. The flow of material or product may include any means of transportation suitable to transport the material or product from a participant to the downstream participant. The means of transportation may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages. The material flow 2004, 2006 may be associated with raw materials used to produce the chemical intermediate products and/or chemical product, such as virgin metals provided by miner 2008 and/or refined virgin metals provided by refiner 2010. The refined metals may be provided to PCAM & CAM producer 2012 for the production of cathode active material. The CAM may be used, for example by battery producer 2014 to produce battery cells. The battery cells may be used to produce batteries by battery producer 2014. The batteries may be provided to end-product producer 2016 to produce battery containing end products, such as electric vehicles. Scrape from battery production may be provided to black mass producer 2020. The loop material flow 2004 may be associated with recycled material, such as recycled metal or metal compounds. The recycled material may be provided from metal extractor 2022 to pCAM and CAM producer 2012 to produce pCAM and/or CAM.

At least part of the participants of the participant network 2024 may be associated with decentral participant network nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404. The decentral participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be under control of the respective decentral participant associated with the respective decentral participant node 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404. The decentral participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may form decentral network 1114. The decentral network 1114 may be a peer-to-peer communication network. The decentral peer-to-peer network 1114 may be configured to perform data transactions 2002 according to at least one network protocol. The data transactions 2002 may be based on at least one transaction protocol including authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer communication between decentral network nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 associated with network participants 2008 to 2022 may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to the decentral identifier as described in the context of FIG. 14. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier may be accessible by the decentral participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 as described in the context of FIG. 14. The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network by allowing for data sovereignty. Data transactions between decentral network participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be based on a decentral identifier associated with respective product data to be accessed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the product and associated product data. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the material and associated material data The decentral identifier may uniquely identify the respective product or material within the decentral network. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifier(s), such as decentral identifier(s) of material(s) used to produce the product. This may allow to track the material(s) used to produce a product, such as an end-product. The decentral identifier may be included in a digital access element associated with the product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 14 and FIG. 15.

The data flow 2002 (e.g. transactions, depicted by dashed lines) between decentral network participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flow 2004, 2006 (depicted by bold solid lines) between the network participants 2008 to 2022. For instance, data flow 2002 may be directly associated with material flow 2004, 2006 if data associated with an input material provided from the refiner 2010 to pCAM & CAM producer 2012 is accessed by decentral participant node 2030 associated with said pCAM & CAM producer 2012. For instance, data flow 2002 may be indirectly associated with material flow 2004, 2006 if data associated with a chemical product, such as pCAM and/or CAM, produced by pCAM & CAM producer 2012 is accessed by decentral participant node 1404 associated with black mass producer 2020.

The decentral participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be decentral computing nodes. The decentral computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and a physical and tangible memory capable of having thereon computerexecutable instructions that are executed by a processor. The memory may take any form of volatile or non-volatile storages and may depend on the nature and form of the computing node.

At least part of the decentral participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be configured as decentral data providing network nodes. At least part of the participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be configured as decentral data consuming network nodes. A participant of the decentral network 1114 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node and/or a decentral data consuming network node depending on whether data is provided to downstream participants and/or consumed from upstream participants. For instance, end-product producer 2016 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node configured to provide product data and/or material data to a downstream participant (e.g. black mass producer 2020) for example as described in the context of FIG. 14. In addition to or alternatively, end-product producer 2016 may be associated with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access data associated with a battery and/or a chemical product produced by an upstream participant (e.g. battery producer 2014 and/or pCAM & CAM producer 2012).

The decentral network 1114 may include further decentral network nodes (not shown in FIG. 20, see for example decentral network node 1104 of FIG. 11 and FIG. 12). The further decentral network nodes may not be associated with or operated by a participant 2008 to 2022 of the battery ecosystem. The further decentral network nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes. The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide services for decentral participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 and/or decentral participants 2008 to 2022, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 prior to performing a data exchange. The decentral network participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certificate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with decentral infrastructure service node(s) including e.g. a certificate issuing service and/or a dynamic provisioning service providing dynamic attribute tokens (e.g. OAuth Access Tokens). This way the decentral network participant nodes 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404 may be associated with a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network participant node 2028, 2030, 2032, 1406, 2034, 2036, 1404. The information required to verify the certificate may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and/or a dynamic provisioning service. For instance, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0 of April 2019, a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner, a Certification Authority (CA), a Dynamic Attribute Provisioning Service (DAPS) and a decentral data consuming network node associated with a data consumer may be used to verify the identity prior to performing a data exchange (not shown).

The present disclosure has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments and examples as well. However, other variations can be understood and effected by those persons skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from the studies of the drawings, this disclosure and the claims.

Any steps presented herein can be performed in any order. The methods disclosed herein are not limited to a specific order of these steps. It is also not required that the different steps are performed at a certain place or in a certain computing node of a distributed system, i.e. each of the steps may be performed at different computing nodes using different equipment/data processing.

As used herein ..determining" also includes ..initiating or causing to determine", “generating" also includes ..initiating and/or causing to generate" and “providing” also includes “initiating or causing to determine, generate, select, send and/or receive”. “Initiating or causing to perform an action” includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform the respective action. In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation.

Claims

1. Apparatus for determining chemical composition data associated with a chemical composition of a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, the apparatus comprising: a decentral product identifier providing unit configured to provide decentral product identifier(s) associated with the product or the part thereof, or to provide decentral recycled material identifier(s) associated with the recycled material, a material data providing unit configured to obtain material data associated with one or more material(s) used to produce the product or the part thereof from a decentral network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), wherein the material data is gathered by the decentral network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), a data providing unit configured to provide operation data associated with an operation of the recycling step, a chemical composition determination unit configured to determine chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data, and configured to provide the determined chemical composition data.

2. Apparatus for determining chemical composition data associated with a chemical composition of a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with at least part of a product, the apparatus comprising: one or more computing nodes; and one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, cause the apparatus to perform the following steps: provide decentral product identifier(s) associated with the product or to provide decentral recycled material identifier(s) associated with the recycled material, obtain material data associated with one or more material(s) used to produce the product from a decentral network participant node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), wherein the material data is gathered by a decentral data consuming network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), provide operation data associated with an operation of the recycling step, determine chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data, provide the determined chemical composition data.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the chemical composition data includes data on one or more chemical compound(s) present within the recycled material.

4. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one decentral product identifier or the at least one decentral recycled material identifier is provided from a sensor reading an identifier element physically connected to the product or the part thereof or physically connected to the recycled material.

5. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein gathering the material data includes determining decentral material identifier(s) associated with the material(s) based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or decentral recycled material identifier(s) and gathering the material data from decentral data providing network node(s) associated with said material data using at least part of the determined decentral material identifiers.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the decentral material identifier(s) are determined using relationship representation(s) specifying relationship(s) between the product or the part thereof and materials used to produce the product or the part thereof and/or specifying relationship(s) between the product or the part thereof and recycled materials resulting from performing at least one recycling step on the product or the part thereof.

7. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein operation data is generated from process specific data associated with the recycling step using at least one optimization method, in particular at least one data reconciliation method.

8. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the material data includes data on one or more chemical compound(s) present within the material.

9. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the operation data includes process specific data associated with the recycling step.

10. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the at least one product is a battery and/or wherein the recycled material is black mass material.

11. A computer-implemented method for determining chemical composition data associated with a chemical composition of a recycled material obtained from performing a recycling step of a recycling process associated with at least part of a product, the method comprising the steps of: providing decentral product identifier(s) associated with the product or to provide decentral recycled material identifier(s) associated with the recycled material, obtaining material data associated with one or more material(s) used to produce the product from a decentral network participant node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), wherein the material data is gathered by a decentral data consuming network node based on the provided decentral product identifier(s) or the provided decentral recycled material identifier(s), providing operation data associated with an operation of the recycling step, determining chemical composition data associated with the chemical composition of the recycled material based on the obtained material data and the provided operation data, providing the determined chemical composition data.

12. Apparatus for operating or controlling a feed of a recycled material to a subsequent recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, wherein the recycled material is obtained by performing a recycling step on the product or the part thereof, the apparatus comprising: one or more computing nodes; and one or more computer-readable media having thereon computerexecutable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by the one or more computing nodes, cause the apparatus to perform the following steps: provide target composition data and recycled material availability data associated with the recycled material, provide - based on the recycled material availability data - chemical composition data associated with the recycled material, wherein the chemical composition data is determined with the apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10 or by the computer-implemented method of claim 11 , determine feed data for the subsequent recycling step based on the provided target composition data and chemical composition data, operate or control the feed of recycled material to the subsequent recycling step based on the determined feed data.

13. A computer-implemented method for operating or controlling a feed of a recycled material to a recycling step of a recycling process associated with a product or a part thereof, wherein the recycled material is obtained by performing a recycling step on the product or the part thereof, the method comprising the steps of: providing chemical composition data associated with the recycled material as determined with the apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10 or the computer-implemented method of claim 11 , providing target composition data and material availability data associated with the recycled material, determining feed data for the recycling step based on the provided chemical composition data, target composition data and material availability data, operating or controlling the feed of recycled material to the recycling step based on the determined feed data.

14. Use of chemical composition data associated with a chemical composition of a recycled material as generated by the apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 10 or according to the computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 11 to monitor and/or control a feed of the recycled material to a recycling step of a recycling process.

15. A computer element with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) of a computing environment are configured to carry out the steps of the computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 11 or claim 13 and/or as provided by the apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 10 or 12.