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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Europe’s largest closed-loop hydrometallurgical battery recycling facility opens
17/5/2023
News
Fortum Battery Recycling has started commercial operations at its hydrometallurgical battery material recycling facility in Harjavalta, Finland.
The newly established facility is said to be the largest recycling plant in Europe in terms of recycling capacity, and is also thought to be the first commercial-scale facility in Europe for hydrometallurgical recycling.
The recycling process recovers critical metals from end-of-life lithium ion batteries, as well as battery production waste, and produces secondary metals for new lithium ion batteries on an industrial scale.
It is hoped the facility will ease the rising demand for sustainable battery materials from European battery manufacturers, helping to reduce Europe’s dependence on imported critical battery raw materials.
‘We are able to sustainably produce the materials urgently needed for new electric vehicle lithium ion and industrial-use batteries. Thanks to our cutting-edge hydrometallurgical technology, 95% of the valuable and critical metals from battery’s black mass can be recovered and returned to the cycle for the production of new lithium ion battery chemicals,’ comments Tero Holländer, Head of Business Line – Batteries, Fortum Battery Recycling.
He continues: ‘The demand for recycled battery materials is set to increase dramatically over the next five to 10 years as the green energy transition speeds up. At the same time, the new EU sustainable batteries regulation requires battery, electronics and automotive manufacturers to gradually increase the amount of recycled materials in batteries. The manufacturers need to prepare for the legislative changes now, as the first minimum levels of recovery for materials such as cobalt, nickel and lithium will come into force in 2026.’
