Sustainable circular economy: automotive companies focus on battery recycling
Although European battery production has recently suffered a setback, battery recycling remains a key issue for the future, including for chemical-mechanical process engineering. Here you can find out how large the market potential is and which projects are currently being initiated.
The discussion about the EU Green Deal's proposed ban on sales of combustion-engine vehicles from 2035 has put a damper on the European market for electric mobility. While the trend towards electric cars is continuing to pick up speed in China and the US in 2024, registration figures in Germany and Europe are stagnating. This has affected battery production: in the first half of 2024, investment plans for around 158 gigawatt hours of predicted production capacity were withdrawn. Despite these political uncertainties, e-mobility is still on the rise. The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research estimates that the market share of electric cars in Europe will increase to almost 60 per cent by 2030. Even if only a small proportion of the batteries for these cars are produced in Europe, the volume of batteries to be recycled will grow exponentially. And there is no alternative to recovering valuable raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. Companies and consortia around the world are therefore investing in battery recycling technologies and facilities to establish a sustainable circular economy.
Battery recycling: a billion-dollar business
The market for lithium-ion battery recycling is growing rapidly. Market researchers at Mordor Intelligence estimate that it will be worth USD 3.25 billion by 2024 and could grow to almost USD 9 billion in the next five years – an annual growth rate of 22.5 per cent. A study by Spherical Insights & Consulting even predicts that the global market for recycling batteries for electric vehicles will reach a value of over 38 billion US dollars by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate of 57.2 per cent.
The main drivers of this growth are the increasing demand for energy storage systems, falling prices for lithium-ion batteries and government regulations requiring environmentally friendly disposal and recovery of battery components. The Asia-Pacific region is also expected to play a leading role in this market, as countries such as China and India are creating strong incentives to promote electric mobility.
Mercedes-Benz opened a battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim in October 2024.Automotive companies: battery recycling in cooperation or on their own
The recycling activities of automotive companies are picking up speed. In October 2024, Mercedes-Benz became the first carmaker to open its own battery recycling plant in Europe. The company aims to close the raw material cycle of batteries and reduce dependence on primary raw materials. The recycling plant has an expected recovery rate of over 96 per cent and can recover valuable materials such as battery-grade lithium, nickel and cobalt, making them suitable for the production of new battery cells. The Mercedes-Benz recycling process combines mechanical and hydrometallurgical processes. The plant in Kuppenheim is expected to achieve an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes. The recovered materials will be used in the production of more than 50,000 battery modules for new all-electric vehicle models from the manufacturer.
Renault is tackling battery recycling in collaboration with chemical company Solvay and waste management firm Veolia. The partnership, formed in 2020, aims to create a reliable and sustainable source of raw materials for cobalt, nickel and lithium. The collaboration leverages Veolia's expertise in battery disassembly and Solvay's expertise in chemical extraction. However, the collaboration has not yet progressed beyond the pilot plant stage, which has been set up in France.
The automotive group Stellantis, which includes brands such as Opel, Chrysler, Citroën and Fiat, is taking a similar approach. Since the recovery of battery materials has many similarities to processes in the nuclear technology sector, Stellantis is working with the American nuclear materials specialist Orano. The aim of the joint venture, which was established in October 2023, is to set up gigafactories for the recycling of spent batteries and production waste. At a plant in Dunkirk, France, the partners want to process materials such as battery masses and achieve a recovery rate of over 90 per cent.
Other players in battery recycling
It is not only carmakers who are pushing into the future market of battery recycling. The Swedish company Stena Recycling opened a recycling plant for lithium-ion batteries in Halmstad in spring 2023 that will initially process 10,000 tonnes of batteries per year with a recovery rate of up to 95 per cent. The new plant specialises in mechanical processing and will be operated jointly with Johnson Matthey. Stena is planning further projects, including a recycling project in Ausenfjellet, Norway, and collaborations with the chemical company BASF.
We have already reported on the prototype plant of BASF at the Schwarzheide site in eastern Germany: the company wants to use a new technology to extract cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel from the waste. With the rapidly growing market for electric vehicles in mind, battery recycling should make the metals relevant for the production of cathode materials available in a competitive and sustainable way.
Technology and political framework remain challenging
Another interesting player is the Canadian company Li-Cycle. Founded in 2016, the company already operates several recycling plants worldwide, including a plant in Magdeburg that began operating in August 2023 and can process up to 30,000 tonnes of battery materials annually. In November 2024, the news that Li-Cycle was receiving a $475 million loan from the US Department of Energy to build a recycling plant in Rochester, New York, caused a stir.
There are several reasons why large automotive companies are seeking alliances in battery recycling. One of the main challenges is the high cost of building and operating recycling plants. This is due to the complex processes involved and the elaborate safety precautions required due to the hazardous potential of the material. Another problem is the lack of standardisation and certification of recycled materials, which limits their use in new batteries. This is because the quality requirements for battery materials are extremely high.
Politicians also have a role to play: so far, there are no EU-wide standards for the dismantling and recycling of batteries. This leads to divergent recycling rates and methods in the individual member states. Although the current regulations set out general recycling targets, they lack specific requirements for the recovery of critical raw materials such as lithium, nickel or cobalt. Furthermore, there are few legal incentives or obligations for manufacturers to use recycled materials in new batteries. In addition, there is a lack of comprehensive systems for tracking the entire life cycle of batteries. Initial ideas include a ‘battery passport’ to increase transparency and reduce illegal disposal. The new EU Battery Regulation, which came into force on 17 August 2023, addresses some of these issues, but the industry is still a long way from effective implementation.
Recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries
Various processes are used to recycle lithium-ion batteries:
- Mechanical processing: Batteries are crushed and sorted to recover metals such as copper, aluminium and iron.
- Pyrometallurgy: High temperatures melt the battery components to extract metals such as nickel and cobalt. However, this process is very energy-intensive and generates large amounts of waste.
- Hydrometallurgy: chemical processes at low temperatures extract metals from the ‘black mass’. This method is more energy efficient and enables higher recovery rates than pyrometallurgy.
Combined processes involving mechanical processing and hydrometallurgy are currently replacing pyrometallurgy as they offer higher purity and energy efficiency.
Conclusion
Battery recycling for electric vehicles is picking up speed. More and more automotive companies see the battery circular economy as the key to securing their own raw material supply. But recyclers and chemical companies also see their chance, because demand is increasing and will multiply in the next five years.
