Battery Recycling

Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer VinFast and Marubeni, a Japanese trading and investment conglomerate, announced a memorandum of understanding to explore opportunities in the reuse of electric vehicle batteries, with the aim of establishing a circular economy model.  Reuse without pack disassembly The companies will cooperate in the research and production of battery energy storage systems using batteries previously used in electric vehicles. VinFast will supply the batteries, while Marubeni will conduct feasibility studies, provide technical advice, and carry out the deployment of the stationary energy storage systems. The aim is to recycle the batteries from VinFast’s electric vehicles as complete battery packs. The companies hope that this will result in cost-effective and easy-to-produce BESS, as it will eliminate the need to dismantle, reprocess and repackage the battery. Source: https://www.vingroup.net/en/news/detail/2953/vinfast-and-marubeni-collaborate-to-repurpose-ev-batteries

The German electric vehicle manufacturer e.GO and the Aachen-based battery recycling start-up cylib have announced the start of a strategic cooperation. The aim of the partnership, which was initiated at the end of 2022, is to improve the sustainability of electric vehicles by taking a holistic approach to the entire lifecycle of lithium-ion batteries. This includes the development, use and recycling of batteries. First batteries already delivered In support of this goal, e.GO has now delivered the first battery cells to cylib. With these batteries, cylib aims to improve the recycling process to enable the recovery of all raw materials contained in the battery. The companies hope that the partnership will provide valuable insights into design requirements, assembly methods and future recycling characteristics. No details were provided about the scope of the deliveries or the planned duration of the collaboration. Source: https://e-go-mobile.com/en/newsroom/180

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and partners from industry are working on a new process chain for recycling spent batteries. The collaboration aims to achieve more efficient recycling by retaining the batteries’ active components.

Automobile manufacturer Stellantis has inaugurated the Sustainera Circular Economy Hub in Turin which is set to start with remanufacturing, reconditioning, and disassembly of electric vehicles and their parts.

Toyota and Redwood Materials have announced an expansion of their collaboration. Toyota will source cathode materials and anode copper foils from Redwood for their upcoming gigafactory in North Carolina.

Circu Li-ion, a European battery recycling start-up, has announced the successful closing of a €8.5 million seed funding round. The financing includes €4.5 million in equity and is led by lead investor BonVenture. The round is backed by a group of experts in battery technology, artificial intelligence, industry, and the company’s management team. The investment is complemented by €4 million in funding from the European Innovation Council Accelerator (EICA) and partnerships with recyclers and OEMs, demonstrating their commitment to a greener future. Circu Li-ion has a vision: through the support and trust of its new strategic partners, the concept of urban mining will be strengthened through an automated upcycling platform for end-of-life batteries. Agreements with leading OEMs in the fields of electric mobility, including electric cars, scooters, and bicycles, as well as with outstanding European recyclers, ensure valuable expertise for Circu Li-ion’s further development. These partnerships emphasize the common goal of establishing a closed-loop battery value chain in Europe – especially given the forecast that the electric car market will become a trillion-dollar market by 2030. Source: Info via email

The British company Altilium and the upcycling and electrification specialist Lunaz have entered into a partnership for the transport of end-of-life batteries. As part of this collaboration, an electric truck is to be developed that is specially designed for transporting end-of-life batteries and can use the electrical energy remaining in the batteries. This is expected to make the transport of batteries to Altilium’s planned recycling facilities more sustainable, while also discharging the batteries before recycling. The pioneering project is funded by the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF). Altilium plans to open the largest electric car battery recycling facility in the UK in Teesside in 2026. The facility will have the capacity to recycle batteries from 150,000 electric vehicles per year and produce 30,000 tons of cathode active materials (CAM) for recycling and reuse in the electric car battery supply chain. Transporting old electric car batteries is difficult and expensive due to their weight and health and safety risks. According to Altilium, transportation accounts for an average of 41% of the total cost of recycling and contributes 3.5% of the GHG emissions in the lifecycle of a recycled battery. Through this project, Altilium hopes to reduce the carbon footprint of battery recycling by up to 5%. Source: https://altilium.tech/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Altilium-Lunaz-APC-announcement-09.10.2325.pdf

Li-Cycle has officially opened its first European battery recycling facility in Magdeburg, Germany, using innovative “Generation 3” Spoke technology. This technology enables all lithium-ion battery waste, including complete electric vehicle battery packs, to be recycled directly without discharge, disassembly, or thermal processing. The Germany Spoke is already operating successfully, and a second parallel line is expected to be added by the end of 2023. Each main line at the plant has the impressive capacity to process up to 10,000 metric tons of lithium-ion battery material per year. With an additional planned capacity of 10,000 tons, the plant is expected to reach a total processing capacity of an impressive 30,000 tons per year. This positions Germany Spoke as one of the largest facilities in Li-Cycle’s current portfolio and one of the most extensive facilities of its kind in all of Europe. Li-Cycle has already announced plans for additional Spokes in France and Norway. These Spokes produce a valuable intermediate product called “black mass,” which contains many useful battery materials including lithium, nickel and cobalt. This pioneering facility in Magdeburg underlines Li-Cycle’s commitment to sustainable solutions in the battery value chain and strengthens its position as an innovation leader in the battery recycling industry. Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230927626410/en/Li-Cycle-Celebrates-the-Opening-of-One-of-the-Largest-Lithium-Ion-Battery-Recycling-Facilities-in-Europe-in-Saxony-Anhalt-Germany

The mining group Eramet and the environmental services group Suez have determined the location for a recycling plant for electric car batteries in France. This recycling plant will be built in two phases in Dunkirk in the so-called “Battery Valley” of France. In the first phase, a dismantling facility is planned, which is expected to be operational in 2025 and have a processing capacity of 50,000 tons of battery modules per year. In the second planning phase, to be completed by 2027, a hydrometallurgical plant will be built to extract and refine the metals (nickel, cobalt, lithium) contained in the black mass. A pilot plant will soon be commissioned on the site of the Eramet research center, where the refining process will be continuously tested and validated on a pre-industrial scale. For this pioneering project, the mining group has received a grant of 80 million euros from the European Union and the BPI to partially finance pre-industrial studies, plant construction and operating costs for the first 10 years of operation. Source: https://www.eramet.com/en/group/eramet-and-suez-choose-dunkirk-for-their-electric-vehicle-battery-recycling-plant/