Circular strategies and decision tools to support end-of-life electric vehicle batteries valorization in the energy transition

The accelerating electrification of transport and energy systems is transforming global mobility while intensifying the demand for lithium-ion batteries. As millions of electric vehicle batteries reach end-of-life, ensuring their sustainable valorisation has become essential to achieving the European climate neutrality targets and securing critical raw materials. This dissertation explores circular strategies and decision tools to enhance the technical, digital, and systemic management of end-of-life batteries, positioning them as enablers of a resilient and low-carbon energy transition. The research follows a progressive methodological trajectory, integrating literature synthesis, multi-criteria decision analysis, optimisation modelling, and system simulation. Initial studies identify barriers to large-scale remanufacturing and employ a multi-criteria model to determine the most effective recovery enablers. Subsequent chapters introduce digital product passport and blockchain architectures to ensure data transparency, traceability, and carbon accountability, investigating their combined application. At the system level, mixed-integer linear programming and multi-objective optimisation quantify how batteries and green hydrogen can be optimally integrated into industrial and urban energy symbiosis networks, thereby decoupling the supply and demand of renewable energy sources. Moreover, geospatial multi-criteria approaches guide the siting of circular energy infrastructures. At the macro level, a system dynamics simulation model assesses how policy targets, technological progress, and circularity measures co-evolve over time, shaping the European infrastructure capacity to achieve critical material security and sustainable growth. The findings demonstrate that coupling circular economy principles with digital traceability and energy integration can significantly enhance Europe’s resource self-sufficiency, emission reductions, and industrial resilience. The dissertation provides an integrative framework linking product-level circularity to macro-scale policy design, supporting the sustainable valorisation of end-of-life batteries as a cornerstone of the clean-energy transition.