Mercedes-Benz has launched Europe’s first battery recycling plant with an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process in Kuppenheim, southern Germany. This makes Mercedes-Benz the first automaker to close the battery recycling loop within its own in-house facility. The plant represents a significant milestone in the company’s efforts to promote a circular economy, reduce dependence on primary resources, and improve sustainability across its operations.
Key Features of the Kuppenheim Battery Recycling Plant:
- High Recovery Rate: The recycling facility boasts an anticipated recovery rate of over 96%, enabling the extraction of valuable materials like lithium, nickel, and cobalt for reuse in new electric vehicle batteries.
- Circular Economy: The plant is designed to create a closed-loop recycling system, ensuring that materials from old batteries are repurposed into new ones, furthering Mercedes-Benz’s commitment to sustainability.
- Innovative Process: The recycling process involves a combination of mechanical sorting of materials such as plastics, copper, and aluminium, followed by hydrometallurgical extraction of critical metals from battery electrodes (the “black mass”).
- Energy Efficiency: Unlike energy-intensive pyrometallurgy, the hydrometallurgical process operates at lower temperatures (up to 80°C) and consumes less energy, reducing its environmental footprint.
- Carbon Neutral: The plant operates in a net carbon-neutral manner and is powered by 100% green electricity. A photovoltaic system on the plant’s roof generates over 350 kilowatts of energy.
Strategic Importance:
- Capacity and Impact: With an annual processing capacity of 2,500 tonnes, the plant recycles materials sufficient to produce over 50,000 battery modules for new all-electric Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
- Collaboration and Innovation: Mercedes-Benz has partnered with Primobius, a joint venture between Germany’s SMS group and Australia’s Neometals, along with three German universities, to advance battery recycling research.
- Holistic Approach to Sustainability: The plant aligns with Mercedes-Benz’s Design for Circularity philosophy, encompassing battery development, recycling, and even second-life applications for batteries in stationary energy storage systems.
The new plant symbolises Mercedes-Benz’s leadership in sustainable mobility and contributes to the global shift towards electric vehicles by creating a more environmentally responsible battery life cycle.
