As per Reuters, the processing of used batteries will take place at a Finland-based facility and lithium, cobalt and nickel are among the materials that can be recovered from previously exploited batteries.

Fortum's efforts come as many electric car manufacturers, including Volkswagen and Tesla, are trying to secure enough supplies for their future battery-powered models, in order to meet market demand.

The Finland-based recycling facility, claimed by the company to be the first of its kind, required a 27 million euros investment. As much as 95% of the chemical composition of lithium-ion batteries could be recovered in the process, all of which can be reused for new, healthy cells.

Researchers at MarketsandMarkets expect the battery recycling industry to grow from 6.5 billion euros in 2022 to over 35 billion by 2031, meaning that we could see more companies getting into the battery cell recycling industry.

Fortum's head of batteries Tero Hollander said that "the need for battery materials is huge and Europe has very limited raw materials production of its own."

To enable recovering even more materials from used batteries, Fortum officials plan to expand the facility further into 2025.