[Report] Crushing and Melting Batteries... Mercedes-Benz Opens Europe's First Recycling Plant

Recovery of 96% Lithium and Nickel from Waste Batteries
Increased Efficiency with Wet Leaching Method and Automation
Benz's 'Circular Economy' Operation... Sustainable Recycling

Interior view of the Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant located in Kupfenheim, southern Germany (Photo by Mercedes-Benz)

"When end-of-life batteries enter the recycling process, we can extract rare metals with a purity of 99.9% that can be directly used in battery production."

Roxana Maria Truta, Battery Recycling Process Development Manager at Mercedes-Benz, said this while introducing the recently completed battery recycling plant.

This facility is located in Kupferheim, southwestern Germany, about two hours from the center of Stuttgart in the south. In this small town with a population of less than 10,000, Europe’s first recycling plant extracting rare metals from end-of-life batteries has been established. As interest in Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle batteries grew recently due to an apartment fire in Korea, on the 21st (local time), domestic reporters were invited to gain an opportunity to observe the entire battery supply chain.

Fully Automated... Wet Process Reduces Carbon Emissions and Increases Energy Efficiency

On the 21st (local time), used battery modules are being loaded onto a conveyor belt inside the Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant in Kupenheim, southern Germany.

When the end-of-life battery modules were placed on the conveyor belt, they were mechanically crushed and friction-washed. This process filters out plastic, copper, and aluminum. Then, through electromagnetic separation, iron is separated. After this process, an intermediate product in the form of black powder called ‘black mass’ can be extracted.

By adding water, sulfuric acid, ammonia, and hydrogen peroxide to the black mass, rare metals such as cobalt, manganese, nickel, and lithium originally used to make the battery are extracted. Among these, nickel and cobalt undergo an additional crystallization process.

Manager Roxana explained, "About four days after the process starts, the end-of-life battery modules return to the form of raw materials," adding, "This completes a sustainable and circular raw material utilization process."

On the 21st (local time), equipment for extracting nickel using sulfuric acid as a solvent is installed at the Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant in Kupenheim, southern Germany.

The 6,800㎡ plant is part of a research project Mercedes-Benz is conducting together with three German universities, including the Berlin University of Technology. Mercedes-Benz invested tens of millions of euros to build this plant. Additionally, support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action was provided. It is the result of collaboration between the German government, private sector, and academia, reflecting their commitment to sustainability in the electric vehicle era.

Mercedes-Benz is the first automaker in the world to establish a battery recycling plant. Ola K?llenius, Mercedes-Benz CEO and Chairman, emphasized, "The battery recycling plant will be an important milestone in strengthening raw material sustainability."

All processes inside the plant are fully automated. Except for checking the incoming end-of-life batteries and placing them on the conveyor belt, the process proceeds automatically. About 50 employees work in the plant operating 24/7 in three shifts. Their main task is to supervise and ensure all processes run smoothly.

On the 21st (local time), Ola K?llenius, CEO and Chairman of Mercedes-Benz, delivered a greeting at the opening ceremony of the Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant set up in Kupfenheim, southern Germany. (Photo by Mercedes-Benz)

A New Milestone in Reducing Raw Material Waste

On the 21st (local time), rare metals such as manganese and nickel extracted through the hydrometallurgical battery recycling process are displayed at the Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant in Kupenheim, southern Germany.

One notable feature of Mercedes-Benz’s battery recycling process is that it uses a wet process instead of a dry one. Manager Roxana said, "There is no need to install a furnace to melt the end-of-life batteries, so carbon emissions are lower and the process temperature is as low as 80 degrees Celsius," adding, "This reduces energy consumption as well as wasted raw materials."

The plant can process about 2,500 tons of end-of-life batteries annually. The company estimates this corresponds to about 50,000 battery modules for new electric vehicles. The recovery rate is designed to be over 96%. This means that if 10,000 end-of-life battery modules are input into the recycling plant, raw materials such as lithium and cobalt sufficient to produce more than 9,600 battery modules can be extracted. Industry experts say that nickel and cobalt recovery rates must exceed 95%, and lithium recovery rates must be above 80-85% to reach the breakeven point for recycling facilities.

Manuel Michel, Head of Battery Recycling at Mercedes-Benz, said, "There are countless ways to recycle end-of-life batteries, such as repairing and reusing them as energy storage systems (ESS) or producing new batteries from rare metals extracted from end-of-life batteries," adding, "The data and experience gained from this plant will play an important role in Mercedes-Benz’s future battery circular economy."

Chancellor Scholz said, "Recycling is also important to sustainably produce batteries, which are essential elements of the future of automotive electrification," and congratulated Mercedes-Benz for showing foresight and decisiveness with this investment.