Europe’s biggest electric vehicle battery recycling plant, Hydrovolt, has opened commercial recycling operations at its facility in Fredrikstad, Norway.
The Fredrikstad operation is a joint venture between Norwegian aluminium and energy company Hydro, and Northvolt, a battery producer building gigafactories in Sweden and Germany.
The statement from Hydro and Northvolt said the recycling facility can process 12,000 tonnes of battery packs per year. That equates to around 25,000 EV batteries, enough for the entire end-of-life battery market in Norway. As the Scandinavian country was an early adopter of EVs, their batteries are nearing end-of-life earlier than other markets.
The plant will enable up to 95% of battery metals to be recovered, as well as plastics. It includes copper, aluminium and black mass (a powder containing nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium). It will be supplied to Northvolt for further recycling.
Aluminium recovered through Hydrovolt will be delivered to Hydro for recirculation into commercial grade aluminium products, they said.
Hydrovolt is looking to expand recycling capacity in Europe. The long-term target is to recycle 70,000 tonnes of battery packs by 2025 and 300,000 tonnes by 2030. That is some 150,000 and 500,000 EV batteries respectively in 2025 and 2030.
