- Xie Yinghao, Yu Haijun and their team receive the European Inventor Award 2026 in the Non-EPO Countries category, as well as winning the Popular Prize, for their process that transforms spent lithium-ion batteries into high-quality materials
- The technology achieves recovery rates of 99.6% for nickel, cobalt and manganese and 96.5% for lithium, while reducing acid and alkali consumption by 73%
- The process produces battery-grade materials with a 61% lower carbon footprint than conventional production methods
- The award was presented during the European Inventor Award 2026 ceremony in Berlin today
MUNICH, July 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, the European Patent Office (EPO) has awarded Chinese inventors Xie Yinghao, Yu Haijun and their team the European Inventor Award 2026 in the Non-EPO Countries category for developing a smart battery recycling process that regenerates high-quality cathode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries. The pair also won the Popular Prize, decided by a combination of public vote and jury vote. According to the International Energy Agency, more than 2 000 GWh of lithium-ion battery capacity was added worldwide between 2018 and 2023, powering around 40 million electric vehicles and thousands of battery storage projects. As demand for batteries continues to grow, so does the need to recover critical raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt. The inventors’ technology enables spent lithium-ion batteries to be converted directly into high-performance cathode materials for reuse in new batteries, reducing waste, resource consumption and carbon emissions.
The European Inventor Award recognises inventors whose innovations provide answers to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The other finalists in the Non-EPO Countries category were Aníbal Montalva Rodríguez and Miguel Ángel Fernández Donoso for a plant-based air-filtration system, and Emily Morris, Thorsten Stoesser and their team for a hydropower technology that actively directs water towards turbines.
“It is a tremendous honour for our team’s smart battery recycling technology to win the European Inventor Award 2026 in the Non-EPO Countries category. Our technology enables the direct regeneration of cathode materials from spent batteries, drastically cutting mineral consumption and carbon emissions. This breakthrough comes from two decades of dedicated research into the circular economy. This recognition belongs to our entire R&D team and all those committed to the global green and low-carbon agenda. Moving forward, we will keep advancing battery circularity, boost technical collaboration between China and Europe in new energy, and work together to build a sustainable energy future,” said Yu Haijun.
A smarter route to battery recycling
Lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) is a key material used in electric-vehicle batteries. Conventional recycling methods often rely on lengthy, chemically intensive processes that consume large quantities of water, acids, alkalis and energy. The Brunp team developed a more selective approach known as directed recycling, which converts spent batteries directly into battery-grade NCM cathode material while preserving the functional structure of the materials.
According to company data, the process recovers 99.6% of nickel, cobalt and manganese and 96.5% of lithium. It also reduces acid and alkali consumption by 73%, shortens processing steps by more than 18% and lowers the carbon footprint of regenerated cathode materials by 61% compared with conventional production methods.
Building a circular battery economy
The origins of the technology date back to the early 2000s, when the team recognised the growing challenge of managing spent batteries and China’s dependence on imported raw materials. He founded Brunp Recycling in 2005 with the goal of turning retired batteries into valuable resources. Yu Haijun later developed the concepts of Reverse Product Positioning Design (RPPD) and Directed Recycling Technologies (DRT), while Xie Yinghao helped advance the technology from laboratory development to industrial deployment.
A major milestone came in 2015 when Brunp became part of the CATL ecosystem, enabling the team to scale its recycling technologies across global battery supply chains. Today, Brunp has become a global leader in spent battery recycling and regenerated ternary cathode materials. The company’s recycling solutions support major automotive manufacturers and contribute to the development of a more circular battery industry.
All the winners of the 2026 edition of the European Inventor Award were announced at a ceremony today in Berlin. You can stream the ceremony online here. Find more information about the invention’s impact, the technology and the inventors’ stories here.
About the European Inventor Award
The European Inventor Award is one of Europe’s most prestigious innovation prizes. Launched by the EPO in 2006, the award honours individuals and teams, who have come up with solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time. The European Inventor Award jury consists of inventors who are all former finalists. To judge proposals, the independent panel draws on their wealth of technical, business, and intellectual property expertise. All inventors must have been granted a European patent for their invention. Read more here on the various categories, prizes, selection criteria and livestream ceremony held on 2 July in Berlin.
About the EPO
With 6,300 staff members, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO’s centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 46 countries, covering a market of some 715 million people. The EPO is also the world’s leading authority in patent information and patent searching.