Battery materials firm Solvay and energy management firm Veolia are partnering on a circular-economy consortium to manage critical metals used in lithium-ion electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
Belgian firm Solvay and French company Veolia , through its subsidiary SARP Industries, are engaged in discussions about the battery value chain— from access and spent battery feedstock to dismantling, metal extraction and purification— with a car manufacturers and battery cell producers.
The goal is to coordinate, collaborate and leverage on technologies and core competences at each step of the battery value chain.
Solvay aims to optimise the extraction and purification of critical metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium and transform them into high-purity raw materials for new batteries.
In its recycling plant in eastern France, Veolia has been dismantling EV batteries since 2013 using a combination of mechanical and hydrometallurgical processes to treat the active cells and extract the active metals.
Antoine Frérot, chairman and CEO of Veolia, said: “The recycling of electric vehicle batteries and the management of the pollutants they contain are major ecological and industrial challenges.
“By partnering, Veolia and Solvay can help develop the recycling value chain and the production of strategic raw materials for the production of new batteries. If today the essential compounds of batteries are mainly imported, tomorrow they will be regenerated in Europe.”
