BASF has successfully started up its black mass production plant in Schwarzheide, Germany. This state-of-the-art plant represents an important milestone for BASF's battery recycling business. It is one of the largest commercial black mass plants in Europe with an annual processing capacity of up to 15,000 tons of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and production scrap. This corresponds to around 40,000 electric car batteries per year.
The production of black mass is an important step in the battery recycling process and is based on the mechanical treatment of the batteries. The black mass produced contains large quantities of key metals that are used to produce cathode materials (CAM): Lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese.
These valuable metals can be chemically recovered and used to produce new cathode materials. This promotes the circular economy and reduces theCO2 footprint compared to the exclusive use of new raw materials.
