Three firms have signed a letter of intent that outlines the intention of the parties to co-operate on an electric vehicle battery recycling cluster in Harjavalta, Finland.
Finnish-headquartered Fortum, German chemicals firm BASF, and Russian mining company Nornickel are joining forces to form a “closed loop” cycle to re-use metals recycled from used batteries.
While the project has begun, a spokesman for the firms said there is “no specific timeline at this point” to create the recycling facilities.
The spokesman told BEST: “The companies in the cluster are targeting to build up a recycling value chain based on recycled material from European sources. This includes dismantling end-of-life batteries, shredding, production of black mass, extraction of metals and returning the metals to battery grade. Capacity is being assessed, but we are targeting ample supply of battery raw materials to support the PCAM plant in Harjavalta.”
The spokesman was unable to discuss the annual recycling capacity the cluster will have, but could say: ” the collaboration will serve geographic markets that make economic sense”.
Fortum was able to increase the recovery rate of lithium-ion battery materials batteries from 50% to more than 80% through its previous acquisition of Finnish hydrometallurgical processing company Crisolteq.
BASF intends to use recycled materials from the processes developed by the companies within this cooperation in its planned battery materials precursor plant in Harjavalta.
Tim Ingle, vice president, Precious Metals Refining, Chemicals & Battery Recycling, at BASF, said: “To drive electrification, we are focused on bringing solutions for high energy density cathode active materials and high efficiency lithium extraction for battery recycling.”