Volkswagen Group Components opened the group's first factory for recycling electric vehicle batteries in Salzgitter. The goal is to close-loop industrial recycling of precious raw materials such as lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt from aluminum, copper, plastics, etc., to achieve a long-term recovery rate of more than 90%.

The Salzgitter plant only recycles batteries that can no longer be used for other purposes. Before the battery is recycled, analysis determines whether the battery is still powerful enough to get a second life in a mobile energy storage system such as a flexible fast charging station or a mobile charging robot.

A large number of battery returns are not expected until the late 2020s at the earliest. Therefore, the original intention of the plant was to recycle up to 3,600 battery systems per year during the pilot phase-equivalent to more than 1,600 tons. In the future, as the process continues to be optimized, the system can be scaled up to handle larger quantities.

The recycling process does not require energy-intensive melting in a blast furnace. The used battery system is delivered, deeply discharged and disassembled. The various parts are ground into granules in a pulverizer and then dried.

In addition to aluminum, copper and plastics, the process also produces valuable "black powder", which contains important raw materials for batteries such as lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt, as well as graphite. The separation and treatment of various substances through the hydrometallurgical process (using water and chemical reagents) is then carried out by professional partners.

Therefore, the basic components of old batteries can be used to produce new cathode materials. Through research, we know that recycled battery raw materials are as efficient as new raw materials. In the future, we intend to use our recycled materials to support our battery production. In view of the sharp increase in demand for batteries and corresponding raw materials, we can make full use of every gram of recycled materials. — Mark Möller, Head of Technology Development and Electric Vehicle Business Unit

Published on January 30, 2021 in Batteries, Electric (batteries), Recycling | Permalink | Comments (5)

The best place to mine cobalt and lithium will be (yes) in old batteries. I see a lot of money being made here, at least before our recycling facilities were in oversupply. Question: Do you recycle cars as soon as they are scrapped, or do you recycle them thousands of times as fixed storage and then recycle them as metals?

Posted by mahonj | January 30, 2021 at 02:24 AM

Volkswagen's first priority is the second life; if the benchmark for this purpose is not met, the battery will be recycled.

Posted by: yoatmon | January 30, 2021 at 03:55 AM

The secondary life package in the garage will reduce the costly and polluting peak power generation.

Posted by: SJC | 01:24 PM, January 30, 2021

Although graphite has a relatively large carbon footprint, there is little mention of recycled graphite. Is EcoGraf the only company that has a process to re-purify and recycle graphite from recycled batteries?

Posted by: Wilma851 | January 30, 2021 at 09:27 PM

@SJC I want to know if we better put the second life package under the control of the grid or garage (or personal house, etc.). I guess they'd better sell them to the grid operator, and the grid operator can use them for any purpose they see fit. You would hope that the second mobile market for life batteries will develop, and then the third "life" battery recycling market.

Posted by mahonj | January 31, 2021 at 05:14 PM

The comment corresponding to this item has been closed.