BASF to build battery recycling plant at Schwarzheide complex

LONDON (ICIS)–BASF is to build a battery recycling prototype plant at the site of its cathode active materials (CAM) facility in Schwarzheide, the German chemicals major said on Tuesday.

The pilot plant will allow the Germany-based firm to develop procedures and optimise technology to recover lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from lithium-ion batteries, as well as material from cell and battery material producers.

Extracted materials will be used to develop new cathode active materials for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in a circular way, according to BASF’s vice president for precious and base metals services.

“With this investment in battery recycling, plus leading process technology for manufacturing of cathode active materials, we aim to ‘close the loop’ while reducing the CO2 [carbon dioxide] footprint of our cathode active materials by up to 60% in total, compared to industry standards,” said Matthias Dohrn.

Battery technology is the focus of much of BASF’s growth spending in Europe, with plants in Schwarzheide and Harjavalta, Finland, currently under development.

Work is underway on both plants, which are expected onstream in 2022.

The company also struck a joint venture agreement with China-based lithium-ion battery materials specialist Hunan Shanshan Energy to target the space, and has partnership agreements in place for Japan and the US with producer TODA.

BASF is the only chemicals producer with such globally diverse CAM-focused projects, a far cry from former CEO Kurt  Bock’s outlook in 2018, when he projected that combustion engines would dominate the market for another decade.

“In 2030, most cars will have combustion engines and actually a good combustion engine is more sustainable than a battery-driven car, especially in China because the country produces its electricity with coal, which is very CO2-intenstive,” said Bock, speaking on the sidelines of the company’s full-year financial results press conference in 2018.

Front page picture: A worker completes an electric car at the assembly line at Volkswagen’s plant in Zwickau, Germany
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