Mercedes leaves nothing behind with new EV battery materials recycling plant

Home > Business > Industry

Mercedes leaves nothing behind with new EV battery materials recycling plant

Published: 22 Oct. 2024, 15:50 Updated: 22 Oct. 2024, 17:28

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Extracted copper and aluminum are deposited in paper bins at Mercedes-Benz's first battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim in southern Germany. [SARAH CHEA]

KUPPENHEIM, Germany — A worn-out prismatic battery pack on a conveyor belt is swallowed by a massive shredder, which turns it into powder that is deposited in a paper bin.

The resulting so-called black mass is mixed with sulfuric acid and water in order to extract nickel, cobalt and lithium, which are widely known as critical but very limited raw materials in batteries for electric vehicles.

It’s how Mercedes-Benz recycles batteries — the most pricey component in EVs that inevitably age and wear out — with a uniquely developed “mechanical-hydrometallurgical” process that it believes has a recycling rate of more than 96 percent.

Mercedes-Benz's first battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim in southern Germany [MERCEDES-BENZ KOREA]

The carmaker opened its first battery recycling pilot plant in the very small and calm German town of Kuppenheim on Monday, the first in the world to use the water-based method for the extraction of metals, ditching the traditional heat-based pyrometallurgical purification process.

“The hydrometallurgical way has a much higher recycling rate and is more efficient as well, as it can ultimately extract all types of metals in the batteries,” said Manuel Michel, head of battery recycling at Mercedes-Benz, during a press tour of the plant on Monday.

“It doesn’t need blast furnaces, so it is considered a way better environmental option.”

Mercedes’s battery recycling plant covers all stages, from shredding battery modules to drying and processing active battery materials. The mechanical system sorts and separates plastics, copper, aluminum and iron in a complex, multistep process.

Rob Halloway, head of global communications at Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans, explains the carmaker's first battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim in southern Germany on Tuesday. [SARAH CHEA]

All batteries, regardless of type — whether prismatic, cylindrical or pouch — can be recycled at the plant, with a hundred gigantic tanks that automatically extract five ingredients: copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese.

“The extracted raw materials have 99.9 percent purity, which means they can be transferred right away to battery manufacturers and used as new materials,” Michel said.

The entire process, from shredding to extracting, takes around four days for a battery. The plant’s pilot production capacity is up to 2,500 tons, enough for 50,000 battery modules. As an EV generally needs around 10 modules, the capacity is equivalent to 500 EVs.

For now, the plant handles used batteries from the automaker's research units all over the world.

“With the successful pilot production, Mercedes will then later ramp up the scale by purchasing batteries from Mercedes owners,” the recycling chief said, hinting that it will later use this as a platform to get orders from EV owners.

The plant operates on 100 percent green electricity. The roof of the 6,800 square-meter (73,000-square-foot) building is equipped with a photovoltaic system with a peak output of more than 350 kilowatts.

Extracted black mass is combined with water and sulfuric acid to extract raw materials with 99.9 percent purity. [SARAH CHEA]

The German carmaker is partnering with Primobius, a joint venture between the German plant and mechanical engineering company SMS group, for the technology. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is contributing to the plant's funding as part of a scientific research project in conjunction with three German universities.

The battery plant comes as the European Union is strengthening its guidelines for cleaner cars, with a pledge to phase out the sale of fossil fuel-burning cars by 2035.

Mercedes vowed to make its fleet of new passenger cars net carbon neutral over the vehicle's entire life cycle by 2039. As part of its strategy, Mercedes has set a goal of increasing the share of recycled materials in its new vehicle fleet to an average of 40 percent.

The EU is also tightening its rules on recycled batteries with a policy that companies must use 6 percent recycled lithium when making batteries from 2031. That percentage goes up to 12 percent in 2036 — meaning half of all existing EV batteries must be recycled.

“Mercedes-Benz is a pioneer in automotive engineering. Europe's first integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical battery recycling factory marks a key milestone toward enhancing raw-materials sustainability,” Ola Kallenius, chairman of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said during the opening ceremony on Monday. “Together with our partners from the industry and science, we are sending a strong signal of innovative strength for sustainable electric mobility and value creation in Germany and Europe.”