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Mercedes-Benz plans battery recycling plant starting in 2023
The automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz has announced the construction of its own battery recycling factory based on hydrometallurgical technology in Germany. Together with partners in China and the USA, the company aims to establish a closed-loop material cycle. Sustainable battery recycling is a key factor in this, says Jörg Burzer, Member of the Management Board of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Production and Supply Chain Management. With the new recycling factory at the Kuppenheim site, the recycling rate will increase to more than 96 percent, and their own expertise in battery value creation will be expanded. In addition, through partnerships in China and the USA, they plan to globalize their battery recycling strategy.
An important milestone for this endeavor is the construction of a pilot plant for recycling lithium-ion battery systems. For this purpose, the wholly-owned subsidiary LICULAR GmbH was founded, which will work with the specialist Primobius on the design and construction of the facilities. The company, a joint venture between the German mechanical engineering company SMS group and the Australian project developer Neometals, provides the necessary technological know-how, including corresponding preliminary investigations, according to the Swabians. A letter of intent has already been signed for the cooperation.
Scientific support from KIT and TU Clausthal and Berlin
The project is to be scientifically supported by the renowned research institutes of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as well as the Technical Universities of Clausthal and Berlin. Additionally, the company aims to set benchmarks for battery recycling from an ecological perspective. Through the process design of the patented hydrometallurgical technology, with recovery rates of more than 96 percent, a "holistic circular economy of battery materials" will be enabled, as stated.
The manufacturer is investing a double-digit million amount in research and development as well as the establishment of the CO2-neutral operated pilot factory in the southern German Mercedes-Benz plant in Kuppenheim. The project has been promised funding as part of the Battery Innovation Support Program of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
"The pilot factory at the Kuppenheim site marks the Mercedes-Benz Group's entry into the important topic of battery recycling and makes the company more independent of raw material supplies in the long run. At the same time, we are accumulating know-how in the field of circular economy and creating new future-proof jobs that can be further expanded with successful operation," says Michael Brecht, Chairman of the Works Council of the Mercedes-Benz plants Gaggenau and Kuppenheim and thus also of LICULAR GmbH, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
In his opinion, sustainability also includes human rights. Brecht refers to the Statement of Principles for Social Responsibility and Human Rights.
Entire Process Chain
The new pilot factory will map the entire process chain of battery recycling in the future, starting from the development of logistics concepts, through the sustainable recycling of valuable raw materials to the reintegration of recyclate into the manufacture of new batteries. The basis of the new recycling factory is an innovative mechanical-hydrometallurgical process, which completely dispenses with energy-intensive and material-consuming pyrometallurgical process steps. The direct integration of hydrometallurgy into the overall concept of a recycling factory is a first in Europe, according to the provider.
Complex Matter: Two-stage Concept
The construction of the plant will be carried out in two stages. By 2023, a facility for mechanical disassembly will first be built. In a second step – subject to the promising discussions with public authorities – the facilities for the hydrometallurgical processing of battery materials will be put into operation. This would enable all steps from disassembly at module level, through crushing and drying to the processing of material flows to battery quality to be covered in Kuppenheim in the future.
The pilot plant is expected to have an annual capacity of 2,500 tons. The recovered materials will be fed back into the material cycle and thus flow into the production of more than 50,000 battery modules for new Mercedes-EQ models. Based on the insights from the pilot factory, the manufacturer hopes to scale up production volumes in the medium to long term.
Translated automatically from German.
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