Aachen, 2 July 2025 - Dr Lilian Schwich, co-founder and co-CEO of battery recycling specialist cylib, has been awarded the Nicolaus August Otto Award 2025 by DEUTZ AG. The prestigious innovation prize recognises groundbreaking contributions to future technology and sustainable innovation.

The award ceremony took place on 1 July at the CHIO Aachen grounds during the CHIOTEC technology conference, where Dr Sebastian C. Schulte, CEO of DEUTZ AG, presented the award, with Julia Klöckner, President of the German Bundestag, congratulating the winner.

"Lilian Schwich is distinguished by her strong pioneering spirit and great entrepreneurship. Her company cylib embodies the connection between technical excellence, industrial scalability and ecological responsibility," stated Dr Schulte.

Dr. Lilian Schwich on receiving the award: "This award validates that the challenging years of research and building our business were the right steps to create momentum. And momentum is the perfect keyword, because our motivation is clear: we want to enable mobility. In Nikolaus August Otto's era, the goal was to make mobility possible; today, we aim to achieve mobility with a reduced ecological footprint while closing material cycles."

The Nicolaus August Otto Award, named after DEUTZ's founder and four-stroke engine inventor, has been presented to honour visionaries driving technological progress.

Revolutionary technology  

Founded in 2022 as an RWTH Aachen University spin-off, cylib has developed proprietary technology that achieves over 90% recycling efficiency whilst recovering all critical elements from lithium-ion batteries. The company's revolutionary OLiC (Optimised Lithium & Graphite Recovery) process utilises water-based extraction, delivering an 80% reduced carbon footprint compared to raw material extraction.

This technological breakthrough has attracted significant investor attention. The company recently completed a €55 million Series A funding round, the largest ever raised by a European battery recycling company, led by World Fund and Porsche Ventures, with participation from Bosch Ventures.

Industrial-Scale Operations

Currently, cylib is building Europe's largest EV battery recycling plant in Chempark Dormagen. The facility will process 30,000 tonnes of battery materials annually when operational in 2027, powered entirely by renewable electricity. The operation will serve customers across the automotive, battery and chemical industries.

This award validates cylib's collective innovation across its team and ecosystem of partners, investors and customers. From university spin-off to leading European battery recycling force, cylib proves that sustainable technology delivers both environmental and economic benefits. As cylib advances towards industrialisation, this recognition reinforces the company's commitment to revolutionising how the world thinks about battery materials.

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