As a company, we are interested in the innovations of our battery industry. Recycling batteries is one of the most important technological advances that has to be made to stop unethical mining practices and reduce power of politically unstable partners. To get a pulse of what’s going on in the world of battery recycling we went to visit the Battery Recycling Expo in Frankfurt am Main.

The ideal situation for battery recycling is straightforward: throughout Europe, people could easily dispose of end-of-life batteries. These batteries would be dismantled into their raw materials, which would then be used to manufacture new batteries. This closed-loop system would operate indefinitely, minimizing waste and resource loss. We unfortunately do not live in an ideal world.

Recycling process

STOKKERMILL RECYCLING MACHINERY developes recycling machines for, amongst other things, Lithium-Ion Batteries or LIBs. We inquired about the proper methods for recycling batteries. For NMC and NCA they use a process of separating that happens in 2 stages.

The Black Mass will now undergo a hydrometallurgical process to extract materials. The Black Mass material is dissolved into a solution using an appropriate solvent, often involving acids, bases, or other chemicals. Then the solution is concentrated and purified to remove impurities and unwanted materials. The desired metal is recovered from the purified solution. The desired materials for instance are: cathode materials ( nickel, cobalt or manganese), Lithium chemical solution, Carbon.

The battery cells are safely shredded and sorted. This will give you a lot packaging materials like plastics, steel casings and metal foils ( copper, aluminium). Next to that it will give you black mass, a composition of the remaining materials.

Challenges and Prospects

The recycling processes currently in use fall short of the ideal scenario described earlier. The main challenge is achieving the necessary purity levels, both in the black mass and the materials extracted from it. The separation processes (stages 1 and 2) do not produce battery-grade materials suitable for the production of NMC or NCA battery cells. A 2023 study published by the Royal Society of Chemistry identified several potential solutions, and many companies claim to sell machinery capable of producing battery-grade materials. However, none of these solutions have proven commercially viable. This was evident both in the research findings from 2023 and at the 2024 Battery Recycling Expo. Experts from Duesenfeld, Green Li-ion , and Elemental Battery Metals concurred that no company has yet achieved closed-loop battery recycling to produce battery-grade materials.

Fortum Recycling & Waste, a company based in Finland, claims to have developed a solution. They assert that they have achieved closed-loop battery recycling. Currently, they can produce technical-grade materials and aim to upgrade to battery-grade materials by 2027. They will be able to recycle end-of-life NMC and NCA battery cells and produce battery-grade materials in an in-house facility. However, they are currently encountering some chemical issues that need resolution.