A new partnership will explore a novel way of recycling high voltage batteries and recovering critical materials.
BMW Group Australia is collaborating with leading battery recycler EcoBatt to give high voltage lithium-ion batteries recovered from its electric vehicles (EVs) a new life.
EcoBatt’s newly opened lithium battery and battery-in-devices shredding (BIDS) plant in Campbellfield will serve as the base for the partnership.
The new facility, with the capacity to process up to 5000 tonnes of batteries and embedded batteries per year, aims to use advanced shredding and separation technology to recover more than 90 per cent of valuable materials, such as metals and plastics, for reuse.
Once BMW high voltage EV batteries reach EcoBatt’s battery discharge plant in Campbellfield, where batteries are safely discharged to remove residual energy and any thermal risk, recovered energy is then deployed in the facility’s operations to limit the carbon footprint of the recycling process.
The batteries are then mechanically shredded at the BIDS plant, with materials such as casings, plastics and metals separated for further recycling.
This process generates black mass – a valuable material containing lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite – to then be supplied to downstream refiners to be used in the manufacturing of new high voltage batteries.
BMW Group has been involved in circular economies for decades. A long-term partnership with SK tes in Germany involves the recovery of cobalt, nickel and lithium from used batteries to then be re-integrated into the supply chain.
BMW has had its own recycling and dismantling centre in Germany for the last 30 years, where thousands of used cars are recycled each year. This facility is also exploring innovative methods to recycle EV batteries.
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