The Digital Battery Passport: Creating circularity through digital transparency

Field report semester project DBP
By Ursina Marseiler (Trainee Circular Economy & Sustainability at BloqSens AG).
In a semester project as part of my Master’s degree at Bern University of Applied Sciences, which I carried out with the support of BloqSens AG, I was able to deepen my knowledge of the battery industry and the battery passport in a variety of ways. The aim of the project was to research the possible effects of the battery passport, which will be mandatory in the EU market for lithium-ion batteries in 2027, with a focus on Swiss companies.

In the course of the project, it became clear that there are currently still many unanswered questions and uncertainties among various players in the Swiss battery industry regarding the battery passport and the data it contains. It is likely that many of these uncertainties will be resolved by the EU’s secondary legislation by the time the battery passport is introduced in 2027.

Since the battery passport should essentially be an instrument of transparency in order to, if not eliminate, at least balance out the existing information asymmetry between different players in the battery industry, the question of the effectiveness of the battery passport as an instrument of transparency also arose repeatedly during the project. Good cooperation between the legislator and the companies concerned seems important here in order to fully exploit the potential of the battery passport. If the battery passport can be successfully implemented accordingly, I believe it can make a valuable contribution to the circularity and sustainability of the battery industry in Europe. This in turn can be of significant help to the business models of various companies along the value chain, but can also potentially strengthen the independence of the European location. In addition to the potential to strengthen circularity, the battery passport can also promote the digitalization and automation of certain processes in the battery industry. This development will probably only be able to unfold its full potential in the next decade, when the volume of used batteries will increase and the efficiency of processes in recycling companies, for example, will become more important.

From the above results, I conclude that the battery passport as a whole makes an important contribution to achieving key political goals of our time, such as the European Green Deal, which aims to promote decarbonization and the digital transformation of Europe, among other things. Ultimately, digital product passports also offer potentially great benefits for other sectors, which is why findings from the battery industry will also be of interest to other sectors when the first experiences are available after the introduction in 2027.

>>> Learn more about the Digital Battery Passport
>>> Original article (LinkedIn)