Mercedes-Benz has opened its first battery recycling plant with an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process. This makes it, the company says, the first car manufacturer worldwide to close the battery recycling loop with its own in-house facility.
The company says the expected recovery rate of the recycling plant – located in Kuppenheim, southern Germany – is more than 96 percent.
The battery recycling plant covers all steps from shredding battery modules to drying and processing active battery materials. The mechanical process sorts and separates plastics, copper, aluminium and iron. The downstream hydrometallurgical process is dedicated to the so-called black mass. These are the active materials that make up the electrodes of the battery cells. The valuable metals cobalt, nickel and lithium are extracted individually. These are of battery quality and, the company says, are suitable for use in the production of new battery cells.
The company adds that the hydrometallurgical process is less intensive in terms of energy consumption and material waste. It is supplied with
100 per cent green electricity.
Mercedes-Benz’s technology partner for the battery recycling factory is Primobius, a joint venture between German plant and mechanical engineering company SMS group and Australian process technology developer Neometals. The plant is receiving funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of a scientific research project with three German universities. The project looks at the entire process chain for recycling, including logistics and reintegration concepts.
The recycling plant has an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes and the recovered materials feed into the production of more than 50,000 battery modules for new all-electric Mercedes-Benz models.
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (November 2024)
6 November 2024