Hamburg's Aurubis launches battery recycling at new pilot plant
The Hamburg-based multi-metal supplier Aurubis launched a new pilot plant for recycling batteries in mid March after lab-scale tests proved successful. This comes against the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries for use in electric vehicles.
Aurubis to pioneer battery recycling
The modular pilot plant will extract valuable metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite from black mass in a hydrometallurgical process and with exceptionally high yields. Black mass forms when lithium-ion batteries are dismantled and shredded. The metals recovered can then be used for new batteries and other products. Roland Harings, CEO of Aurubis AG, stressed: "As the most efficient and sustainable smelter network in the world, we have the long-standing metallurgical expertise necessary to be a key trailblazer for the mobility shift with our metals and process solutions."
Industrial scale battery recycling plant
On completion of the pilot phase, Aurubis plans to build a battery recycling plant on an industrial scale at a cost of some EUR 200 million.
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