First In Europe, Mercedes-Benz Inaugurates Future EV Battery Recycling Factory

Hydromethalurgy battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, Germany. (Doc. Mercedes-Benz AG)

JAKARTA - Mercedes-Benz has officially opened a battery recycling plant with a mechanical-hydrometelurgy process, as well as making it the first car manufacturer in Europe to present the facility.

This factory is located in Kuppenheim, southern Germany. This underlies the spirit of pioneering and the innovative power of Mercedes-Benz in its efforts to significantly reduce the consumption of valuable primary resources.

Chairman of Mercedes-Benz Group AG Ola Kallenius, said this development is also in line with the company's vision to build a sustainable ecosystem.

"As a pioneer in automotive engineering, Europe's first integrated mechanical-hydrometelurgical battery recycling plant marks an important milestone in increasing the sustainability of raw materials," Kallenius said, on the official Mercedes-Benz website, Tuesday, October 22.

According to the manufacturer, the expected recycling rate from the facility is more than 96 percent. Valuable and rare raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt can be re-obtained in a suitable way to be used in new batteries for future Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles.

Unlike the pyromethalurgy plant currently in Europe, the hydromethalurgy process is not too intensive in terms of energy consumption and material waste. The low process temperature of up to 80 degrees Celsius means consuming less energy. In addition, like all Mercedes-Benz production plants, this recycling plant operates in a carbon-neutral way.

This is supplied with 100 percent environmentally friendly electricity. The building roof covering an area of 6,800 square meters is equipped with a photovoltaic system with a peak output of more than 350 kilowatts.

The company has invested tens of millions of euros in the construction of the battery recycling plant as well as in value creation in Germany.

The factory is the result of a partnership with Primobius, a joint venture between a German factory and an SMS group of machine engineering companies and the technology developer of the Australian Neometals process.

The factory received funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of a scientific research project with three universities in Germany. The project reviews the entire chain of recycling processes, including the concepts of logistics and reintegration.

The company claims the battery recycling plant has an annual capacity of 2,500 tons. A number of materials re-obtained were used for the production of more than 50,000 battery modules for the new electric all-electric Mercedes-Benz model.