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Published - 7 November 2025 - 5 min read

From Compliance to Circularity: How the Digital Battery Passport is Powering the Next Generation of Circular Economy Practices

The European Union has shifted the direction of the battery sector with the introduction of Digital Battery Passports. The new EU Battery Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542) signals a fundamental shift from linear supply chains to circular design and accountability.

Where battery production was once prioritised throughout and end-of-life recycling, the new EU Battery Regulation now mandates full lifecycle transparency - from raw material sourcing through second-life applications and safe disposal.

The Digital Battery Passport (DBP) plays a pivotal role in this transition. As a structured, digital record of a battery’s origin, chemistry, usage, and condition, the DBP enables new forms of decision-making across the value chain. It equips manufacturers, recyclers, and regulators with data-driven insights to design for reuse, track material flows, and optimise performance across multiple lives.

But the DBP is more than a data container or a compliance mechanism - it is a catalyst for change. By making circularity measurable, auditable, and monetisable, it accelerates innovation in battery design, business models, and cross-sector collaboration. Circular economy is no longer a theory - it is becoming an operational and strategic necessity.

The true impact of this shift becomes visible when we examine how the DBP enables circular practices at every stage of the battery lifecycle - from design to recycling.


Circularity in Action: Lifecycle Use Cases Empowered by the DBP


First Life & Manufacturing

In the early stages of battery production and deployment, the DBP tracks crucial data: carbon footprint, raw material origin, battery geometry, embedded energy, and critical component sourcing. Manufacturers can use these insights to benchmark eco-design, optimise performance, and reduce warranty risks.

In the BASE project, teams focusing on Circularity Calculation Methods and DBP Platform work together to ensure that circularity isn’t just an afterthought - it’s designed in from the start.

Operationally, this enables producers to monitor production yield, anticipate residual value, and even simulate future scenarios for reuse or recycling. For OEMs, the DBP becomes a tool not just for compliance, but for lifecycle cost optimisation and product innovation.


Second Life Preparation

As batteries reach the end of their first operational use, repurposing becomes a viable pathway. Second-life applications - from stationary storage to industrial reuse - require high-confidence decisions based on health, safety, and energy retention.

Here, the DBP offers significant value. By capturing real-time data on State of Health (SoH), State of Charge (SoC), degradation patterns, and usage history, stakeholders like BeePlanet, Cleantron, and Ford (within BASE) can assess and grade batteries for second-life suitability. The DBP effectively becomes a ‘certificate of second-life readiness’.

This doesn’t just benefit circularity goals; it also creates new business models. OEMs and service providers can monetise second-life pathways with greater confidence, while insurers and asset managers gain clearer risk profiles.


End-of-Life Recovery

At the end of life, proper dismantling, hazard mitigation, and material recovery are essential. Yet many recyclers lack detailed insights into the condition or composition of incoming batteries. The DBP changes this.

Partners like Exitcom use the DBP to verify thermal risk, validate embedded materials, and plan dismantling processes. By linking dismantling protocols to DBP data, recyclers can improve efficiency, reduce safety incidents, and boost recovery yields for critical raw materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

BASE’s contribution here is not just technical. It lays the foundation for new industry standards that define what information is needed, how it's shared, and how it impacts real-world recycling economics.


Beyond Traceability: The Rise of Circular KPIs

With DBPs embedded, companies can now monitor not just where a battery has been, but where it could go next. This unlocks new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that go far beyond traditional compliance metrics.

Imagine measuring the percentage of a battery’s material loop that is closed, or tracking its repairability index, or calculating the CO₂ savings from each reuse cycle. These circular KPIs will become essential to procurement teams, investors, and ESG auditors alike. The BASE project’s work on lifecycle traceability (e.g., work on ESG tracking) helps define and test these indicators in real-world pilots.

As the DBP matures, it evolves from a static document into a dynamic intelligence system that supports scenario planning, residual value forecasting, and circular design validation.


BASE in the Lead: Circularity by Design

BASE doesn’t just respond to regulation - it helps shape the tools and logic behind future circular battery systems. From modular ontology and data standards to predictive algorithms and semantic models, BASE is creating infrastructure that will enable widespread adoption of DBPs across sectors.

By linking digital twins, manufacturing data, and real-time diagnostics into a single, portable, and interoperable platform, BASE ensures that circularity can scale with confidence. Each of the project’s Key Exploitable Results (KERs) feeds into this bigger vision: one where batteries don’t just meet minimum requirements, but actively power sustainability and value regeneration.


Closing Thoughts: From Digital Tool to Circular Transformation

The Digital Battery Passport is much more than a compliance formality. When implemented well, it becomes the central nervous system of a circular battery economy. It allows each stakeholder to unlock new efficiencies, reduce environmental impact, and create long-term value.

As BASE moves into its next phase, it continues to prove that circularity is not only feasible but desirable. Through real data, real tools, and real use cases, the project demonstrates how battery passports can bridge the gap between regulation and opportunity. In doing so, it sets the stage for the next generation of circular practices - built not just to comply, but to transform.


The BASE project has received funding from the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No. 101157200.


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