Mercedes Benz has opened Europe's first battery recycling plant
The German car manufacturer is the first automotive company to close the battery recycling loop with its own facility.
The plant’s integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process makes Mercedes-Benz the first car manufacturer in the world to close the battery recycling loop with its own facility. In contrast to existing, established processes, the expected recovery rate is over 96 per cent. Valuable and scarce raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt can be recovered in a form suitable for use in new batteries. The company has invested tens of millions of euros in the construction of the new recycling plant and thus in value creation in Germany.
“We need many more sustainable and local initiatives like this if we are to maintain our technological leadership in Germany. A high-rate battery recycling programme reduces our dependence on imported raw materials and improves security of supply. This has a positive impact on greenhouse gas emissions and brings us a decisive step closer to sustainable mobility”, says Adrian Willig, director of the Association of German Engineers (VDI e.V.).
Integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical recycling concept
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. For the first time in Europe, the Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant covers all steps from the shredding of battery modules to drying and processing of active battery materials.
The mechanical process sorts and separates plastics, copper, aluminium and iron in a complex, multi-stage process. 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. Compared to the pyrometallurgy used in Europe today, the hydrometallurgical process is – with a process temperature of up to 80°C – less energy intensive and produces less material waste. It has an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes, enough to produce more than 50,000 new battery modules.
In its Life Cycle Assessment 2023, the VDI emphasised that e-mobility will only be climate-friendly if the entire battery production and recycling procedure becomes 'green'. Recycling plays a key role in this transformation.
Source: VDI/Mercedes-Benz
Caption 1: An Mercedes-Benz employee taking a sample during the hydrometallurgical process.
Caption 2: The Battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim is used for the extraction of cobalt, manganese, nickel, lithium and mineral graphite in a multistage chemical process. (Images: Mercedes Benz)