A battery recycling joint venture owned by Neometals and German metallurgical equipment supplier SMS Group GmbH has received a purchase order from Mercedes-Benz Group for the supply of a 10-tonnes per day lithium-ion battery shredding spoke.
Under the arrangement, the Primobius GmbH venture will create, supply and install a fully-integrated, closed loop lithium-ion battery recycling plant for Mercedes at its new Kuppenheim facility in southern Germany.
The plant marks the automotive giant’s entry into the field of lithium-ion battery recycling, making it less reliant on raw material supplies in the future.
The purchase order comes after Neometals announced in March that it would join forces with Mercedes to build the new facility.
Breaking down batteries
Spoke shredding (or recycling) is a process which breaks down lithium-ion batteries into inert materials, thereby removing the risk of fire or explosion.
The new 2500 tonnes per annum facility (or up to 10tpd) will be used to recover these materials (which includes lithium, cobalt and nickel) and feed them back into production of a targeted 50,000 battery modules for installation into Mercedes’ range of EQ (electric intelligence) vehicles.
The project serves as a key element of Mercedes’ sustainable business strategy, which outlines a commitment to carbon dioxide neutrality and a focus on an all-electric vehicle line-up.
Significant milestone
Neometals managing director Chris Reed said the Mercedes purchase order marked a significant milestone for the joint venture.
“This represents the first commercial recycling plant agreement with a global electric vehicle manufacturer and the first significant revenue for Primobius,” he said.
“The award is a strong validaton of the efficacy and scalability of Primobius technology to meet the needs of the global automotive industry… it showcases our integrated recycling solution to recover and regenerate battery materials for use in the production of new cells.”
Mr Reed said the venture was in the process of finalising front-end engineering activities for the recycling plant and expects to receive a separate purchase order for the hub in September.
Spoke installation is planned to commence later this year with commissioning scheduled for early 2024.
Primobius joint venture
Primobius was established as a 50:50 joint venture in mid-2020 to commercialise an environment-friendly recycling solution for end-of-life and scrap lithium-ion batteries.
Its process offers scalable, efficient, sustainable recycling which is capable of reducing carbon dioxide footprints within the lithium-ion battery supply chain.
