BASF will build a commercial scale battery recycling black mass plant in Schwarzheide, Germany and will create about 30 new production jobs, with startup planned for early 2024.
Black mass production is the first step in the battery recycling process and is based on mechanical treatment of the batteries.
The produced black mass contains high amounts of the key metals used to produce CAM: lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. It will be the feedstock for the commercial hydrometallurgical refinery for battery recycling that BASF plans to build mid of this decade.
We take the next step to establish the full battery recycling value chain at BASF. This allows us to optimize the end-to-end recycling process and reduce the CO2 footprint
Dr. Peter Schuhmacher, President, Catalysts division at BASF
Battery recycling is an important lever to reduce the CO2 footprint of battery electric vehicles, and is key to meet circularity-driven policy requirements, expected under the proposed EU Battery Regulation.
These will cover recycling efficiency of lithium-ion batteries, as well as material recovery and recycled content targets for nickel, cobalt and lithium.
