German motor manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus published a plan for recycling batteries. The Munich-based company said its analysis starts with the first life of the battery in the vehicle. The focus is training customers to drive, charge and use the vehicles to minimise battery load.
If battery packs can no longer be used as traction batteries, they are sent for secondary applications:
- a second use in the vehicle after factory repair
- a second battery life, for example as buffer storage of solar or wind power installations
- the recovery of battery raw materials for new batteries (recycling).
Around 120 truck battery packs, each 18.6 kWh, are being handed over to a stationary storage systems manufacturer for evaluation.
It said the focus is on energy storage systems for industrial companies (peak shaving).
The main aim is to study safety, battery performance and remaining battery charging cycles.
MAN said it wants is to achieve a closed cycle for battery raw materials. The goal is to use the raw materials recovered by the recycling partners (nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium) in the new production of batteries.
At present, the recycling rate is more than 70% in relation to the weight of the battery. It prefers a mechanical process followed by hydrometallurgical treatment, it said.
MAN expects that electric trucks will have a 60% share in distribution applications and 40% in long-haul transport in 2030. Electrification of city buses has started earlier, and MAN sees 50% of sales being electric drives by 2025. The number of batteries reaching end of service life in vehicles will thus only reach industrial levels in 10-15 years’ time.
