Batteries

Revomet GmbH, a subsidiary of Cronimet Group, and CNGR Advanced Material have officially finalized their joint venture following the Heads of Agreement signed in December 2023. Once all conditions from the joint venture agreement have been met, CNGR will acquire a 25 percent stake in Revomet Bitterfeld GmbH, previously a wholly owned subsidiary of Revomet GmbH.

Ecobat has announced a binding agreement to sell its battery recycling and specialty lead operations in Germany and Austria to Clarios. The transaction includes Ecobat’s facilities in Freiberg and Braubach, Germany, as well as the Arnoldstein operation in Austria.

The Li-ion battery (LIB) recycling market has continued to grow rapidly through players establishing new partnerships, securing supply deals, and gathering large volumes of funding. Key players have also persisted with constructing new commercial-scale facilities utilizing mechanical, hydrometallurgical, and pyrometallurgical recycling technologies.

Cylib and Syensqo have successfully produced high-purity lithium hydroxide from end-of-life electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Tozero plans to establishing a commercial-scale demonstration plant for lithium-ion battery recycling at Gendorf chemical park. A lease agreement has been signed for an existing industrial building that will be converted to house the facility. Commissioning is scheduled for later this year.

Li-ion battery (LIB) recyclers have continued to gather large volumes of new funding, form new strategic partnerships, and commission large-scale facilities over the last few years. This has signified a hyperactive market, especially with players in the Asia-Pacific and the US making strides with commercializing their technologies and scaling their recycling capacities, securing recycled material offtake agreements, and expanding to oversea territories.

BASF has started the commercial operation of its Black Mass plant in Schwarzheide, Germany. According to the company, this facility is one of the biggest commercial Black Mass plants in Europe, with an annual processing capacity of up to 15,000 tons of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and production scrap.

A joint position paper calls upon the European Commission to take decisive regulatory action to mitigate risks from surging lithium battery fires and protect Europe’s waste management infrastructure and workers.

An increasing number of electronic waste is not being properly disposed of but often discarded together with plastic waste, for example. If the batteries in these products are damaged, they can cause fires at sorting plants. In the DangerSort project, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS are using a sensor-based sorting system to remove hazardous items and make recycling plants safer.

Furuya Metal and Asahi Kasei have, in collaboration with Nobian Industrial Chemicals and Mastermelt, embarked on a demonstration trial regarding the recycling of metals used for chlor-alkali electrolysis cells and the electrodes within those cells. Through this initiative, Furuya Metal will strive to build an ecosystem in the chlor-alkali industry using rare metal recycling.#

As demand for electric vehicles soars, the environmental impact of battery production and disposal is under increasing scrutiny. The 2023 EU Battery Regulation imposes stricter sustainability targets, requiring 50% lithium recovery by 2027 and 80% by 2031. By 2031, minimum recycled content levels must reach 16% for cobalt, 85% for lead, and 6% for lithium and nickel. These regulations drive manufacturers to enhance recycling efficiency and adapt to evolving sustainability standards.