According to Electrek, the battery recycling factory is the joint effort of two companies, Hydro, which is one of the world's largest aluminum companies, and Northvolt, a battery manufacturer that builds factories in Sweden and Germany.
The new facility has the capacity to process as much as 12.000 tons of batteries per year, which should be around 25.000 EV batteries.
Hydrovolt claims that it can process and recover 95% of the materials found in EV batteries, including the plastics, copper, aluminum and the "black mass", which is a powder containing rare-earth elements found in lithium-ion batteries.
Nickel, cobalt and lithium are among these materials.
Both companies benefit in their own way from the process, with Hydro getting access to recycled aluminum, which is being processed with around 5% of the energy necessary to produce primary aluminum, and Northvolt gets access to other materials that it needs from the black mass which can be used in the manufacturing of new batteries.
Northvolt plans that, through this new effort, 50% of its battery raw materials will come from recycled batteries by 2030, which should definitely help the EV industry, since these types of cars are going to get more popular in the EU, if the Commission's proposal regarding the ban of fossil-powered cars passes.
Hydrovolt wants to expand battery recycling to other European countries in the future, so that they can reach a capacity of 70.000 tons of battery packs processed by 2025, and 300.000 tons by 2030.
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