Battery Recycling | Mercedes-Benz Opens Wet Battery Recycling Factory

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Battery Recycling | Mercedes-Benz Opens Wet Battery Recycling Factory

Date：2024-10-22

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Keyword tags： Battery Recycling Europe

Mercedes-Benz opened the first battery recycling factory in Europe on October 21, utilizing an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process in Kuppenheim, southern Germany. This battery recycling factory, which cost double-digit of millions of euros to build, lays the foundation for Mercedes-Benz to achieve a circular economy and close the battery value chain in Germany.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Thekla Walker, the Environment Minister of Baden-Württemberg, attended the opening ceremony and visited the battery recycling factory located in Kuppenheim, Baden.

This mechanical hydrometallurgical recycling plant will effectively recycle rare precious metals and raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt from retired EV batteries, with an expected recovery rate of over 96%. The plant has an annual capacity of 2,500 tons, and the recycled materials can produce more than 50,000 battery cells, which can be equipped in new all-electric Mercedes-Benz models. In the medium to long term, the plant will expand production, with the goal of reaching an annual capacity of 21,000 tons.

Mercedes-Benz's technology partner for the battery recycling factory is Primobius, a joint venture between the mechanical engineering company SMS Group and the Australian process technology developer Neometals. The plant is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of a scientific research project in collaboration with three German universities.

Mercedes-Benz's integrated mechanical hydrometallurgical battery recycling plant covers all steps of battery recycling, from the shredding process to the extraction process. The front-end shredding process sorts and separates plastics, copper, aluminum, and iron, while the downstream hydrometallurgical process is dedicated to producing black mass, followed by a multi-stage extraction process that individually recovers the battery raw materials of cobalt, nickel, and lithium, which can be reused for battery cell manufacturing.

This hydrometallurgical battery recycling plant adheres to environmental protection concepts, achieving reduced energy consumption and material savings. The hydrometallurgical process maintains a low temperature of only 80 degrees Celsius, and its power supply comes from a photovoltaic system installed on the roof, providing 100% green electricity.

In July of this year, Mercedes-Benz Group also opened the Mercedes-Benz eCampus at the Untertürkheim plant in the suburbs of Stuttgart, concentrating on battery research and developing innovative high-performance batteries and solid-state batteries, as well as new production processes based on silicon anodes and cobalt-free cathode materials. The automaker's goal is to reduce battery costs by more than 30% in the coming years.

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