Battery Recycling

In the second half of 2025, BMW Group will start building a center for the recycling of battery cells in Germany for around ten million euros.

Li-Cycle has received a loan of up to 475 million dollars from the US Department of Energy for the development of North Americaʼs first hydrometallurgical recycling facility for lithium-ion batteries.

A research team at TU Bergakademie Freiberg is using a new shredder system to investigate how to entirely recover valuable battery raw materials such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium.

Mercedes-Benz has inaugurated Europe’s first battery recycling plant using a combined mechanical-hydrometallurgical process in Kuppenheim, Germany. The company says it has invested tens of millions in the construction of the plant, which will have an annual capacity of 2,500 tons. According to the company, a recovery rate of over 96 percent is expected. Hydrometallurgical Process Reduces Energy Requirements The recycling plant covers all steps from shredding the battery modules to processing the active battery materials. The mechanical process separates plastics, copper, aluminium and iron, while the downstream hydrometallurgical process focuses on the black mass. From this, valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium are extracted. Compared with conventional pyrometallurgy, this process is less energy-intensive because lower temperatures of up to 80 degrees Celsius are required. Mercedes-Benz is supported by its technology partner Primobius and by funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. The project, which is being carried out in cooperation with three German universities, is investigating the entire recycling value chain and is expected to help increase recycling capacities in the long term. Source:https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/news/recycling-factory-kuppenheim.html

Canadian company Lithion has become the official recycler for electric vehicle batteries from Hyundai Auto Canada and will take over the collection, transportation, and disassembly of the batteries.

The planned partnership between Stellantis and Orano for the recycling of electric vehicle batteries will not materialize. The collaboration was intended to optimize processes for the recovery of cobalt, nickel, and lithium.

ReElement Technologies, American Metals and Indian battery recycler LOHUM Cleantech are to build an integrated lithium-ion battery recycling facility in the US for over 30 million dollars.

BMW and Redwood Materials have launched a collaboration for collecting and recycling lithium-ion batteries in the USA. The goal is a recycling rate of up to 98 percent.

German company “cylib” has started construction of its first industrial recycling plant at Chempark Dormagen. The plant will be processing up to 30,000 tons of spent batteries per year from 2026.

Librec is establishing Switzerland’s first major electric vehicle battery recycling plant in Biberist. A new hall has been constructed on the site of a former paper factory. Starting in late October, Librec plans to recycle 12,000 tons of EV batteries annually at the Biberist facility. As the number of electric vehicles increases, so does the demand for recycling solutions for EV batteries, especially since the extraction of metals needed for batteries often involves challenging working conditions. Battery recycling offers the opportunity to produce new EV batteries using recycled materials, helping to mitigate some of these issues. Librec is about to open the largest recycling facility for electric vehicle batteries in Switzerland. The new recycling hall has been built on the site of a former paper factory in Biberist (Canton Solothurn). The facility is expected to start operations at the end of October. Upon delivery, the batteries will first be discharged on-site. “The battery is opened, connected to discharging equipment, and all remaining energy is extracted,” explained Jodok Reinhardt, founder and CEO of Librec, in an interview with SRF. The energy recovered will be used to cover one-third of the recycling facility’s energy needs. Source: https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/biberist-so-schweizer-fabrik-bereit-bald-werden-e-auto-batterien-recycelt