BASF will build a plant for the recycling of black mass from batteries on an industrial scale in Schwarzheide. The location is ideal for the development of battery recycling activities, as there are many manufacturers of electric cars and cell producers in Central Europe.
The investment will create around 30 new jobs in production, with commissioning planned for early 2024. The production of black mass is at the beginning of the recycling process and is based on the mechanical treatment of the batteries. The black mass obtained in this way contains large quantities of the most important metals used in the production of cathode materials: Lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. In the next step, the black mass is further processed hydrometallurgically. BASF is planning to build a corresponding large-scale plant in the middle of the decade.
Battery recycling is an important lever to reduce thecarbon footprint of electric vehicles and meet ambitious circular economy-oriented policy regulations expected under the proposed EU Battery Regulation. This includes efficient recycling of lithium-ion batteries with targets for material recovery and the recycled content of nickel, cobalt and lithium in new lithium-ion batteries.
