Mercedes-Benz has opened a new battery recycling facility that includes an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process. Located in Kuppenheim, a town in southern Germany, the facility will help the automaker create a circular economy while achieving an expected recovery rate of more than 96 percent.
Primobius, a joint venture between SMS group (a German plant and mechanical engineering company) and Neometals (an Australian process technology developer), was selected by Mercedes-Benz as a key technology partner for the new facility. The plant itself is receiving funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of a broader scientific research project with three German universities assessing the process chain for recycling, including logistics and reintegration concepts.
Through its new plant, Mercedes-Benz will look to cover each step of this process – from shredding battery modules to drying and processing active battery materials. The mechanical process sorts and separates iron, plastics, copper, and aluminum in a complex, multi-stage process. The downstream hydrometallurgical process is dedicated to the active materials that make up the electrodes of the battery cells, which the OEM refers to as black mass. Cobalt, nickel and lithium are then individually extracted in a multi-stage chemical process. Once extracted, these recyclable materials can be used to produce new battery cells.
The OEM highlighted that the hydrometallurgical process is less intensive in terms of energy consumption and material waste. Its low process temperatures of up to 80°C (176°F) means it consumes less energy, while the plant more broadly operates in a net carbon-neutral manner and is supplied with green electricity. Ultimately, Mercedes-Benz expects the Kuppenheim recycling plant to have an annual capacity of 2,500 tons, with the recovered materials facilitating the production of more than 50,000 battery modules for use in in its new EVs. The knowledge gained could from the plant could further help the OEM scale up production volumes in the medium-to-long term.
