A factory flying the Mercedes flag will emerge from the ground in Germany and will be responsible for recycling all or almost all of the batteries of electric cars on the same site.
Mercedes has just laid the first stone of the foundations of a factory dedicated to recycling batteries and located in Kuppenheim, a small German town just on the other side of the French border, about sixty kilometers from Strasbourg. Initially, the site will be devoted to mechanical dismantling which will begin at the end of this year, with discussions underway with the public sector for possible expansions.
According to Mercedes, it looks promising in any case. The objective is to add, a few months later to the mechanical dismantling of hydrometallurgy capacities, a purification process consisting of dissolving the various metals contained in an ore or a concentrate in order to separate them for recovery. This would allow the German car manufacturer to control the complete chain, from the reception of old batteries to the extraction and sorting of raw materials, in one and the same place.
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“The innovative approach of the integrated recycling concept in a single plant is currently unique in Europe” according to the brand. Although the Volkswagen recycling plant located in Salzgitter started its operations two years ago, not all the stages are concentrated there, the last ones, those of hydrometallurgy, being subcontracted to specialized partners. , contrary to the ambitions of the Kuppenheim site.
In total, the brand with the star will invest an unspecified amount, but probably counting in the tens of millions of euros, in the construction of this factory powered by solar panels and claiming to be CO2 neutral. However, funds will also be added by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, with the site classifying as a scientific research project. At the end of the latter, baptized LiBinfinity, Mercedes, in association with partners such as Primobius, the SMS group and research institutes, wants to have developed a hydrometallurgy process making it possible to achieve a recycling rate ofat least 96%, almost a circular economy of battery materials.
Initially, the annual capacity will be 2,500 tons, but the volume may increase in the medium or long term depending on the manufacturer. This figure may seem low, even disappointing. And yet, it is not limited by technical or economic reasons, but by the very availability of raw materials: there are simply not enough scrapped electric vehicles today to supply the factory any longer, knowing that the batteries themselves are entitled to several “careers”, often being reused for fixed energy storage before being truly declared as end of life.
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