Till Bußmann, CTO Duesenfeld GmbH: “This is an important announcement in terms of the circularity of cathode active material. The material can be reused directly without a large energy and chemical input and thus with a low CO2 footprint.“
In a pilot project, a recycling rate of over 90% was achieved for an industrial NMC cathode scrap with extremely low aluminium impurities. In subsequent industry-standard cell tests (C-rate test and long-term cyclisation), cells with 26% recycled content were certified as having a performance comparable to that of reference cells. The specific discharge capacity of the cells with 26 % recycled content reached 162 mAh g-1 compared to 165 mAh g-1 for the reference cells with 100 % primary material content. Similarly, the capacity retention of the cells with 26 % recycled content after 500 cycles is 68 %, which is on a par with the reference cells (67 %).
