Mercedes-Benz opened Europe's first battery recycling plant with an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process making it the first car manufacturer worldwide to close the battery recycling loop with its own in-house facility. The recycling plant in Kuppenheim, southern Germany, creates a genuine circular economy. This underpins the pioneering spirit and innovative strength of Mercedes-Benz as it strives to significantly reduce the consumption of valuable primary resources. Unlike existing established processes, the expected recovery rate of the mechanical-hydrometallurgical recycling plant is more than 96 percent. Valuable and scarce raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt can be recovered – in a way which is suitable for use in new batteries for future all-electric Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The company has invested tens of millions of euros in the construction of the new battery recycling plant and thus in the value creation in Germany. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Baden-Württemberg's Environment Minister Thekla Walker visited the plant for the opening ceremony in Kuppenheim, Baden.
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MotorTranscript
00:00The Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim combines mechanical and hydrometallurgical
00:07recycling processes at one location.
00:10This makes it unique in Europe on this industrial scale.
00:15After checking the state of charge, the process starts with placing the battery modules on
00:20a conveyor belt.
00:22The batteries are then mechanically crushed, washed, and separated into coarse and fine
00:27fraction.
00:30Using gravity-based air systems, magnetic separators, a grinder, and various sieves
00:35– plastics, copper, aluminum, and iron – are separated and packaged according to type.
00:42At the same time, the black mass contained in the dried coarse material is separated.
00:48The previously separated fine fraction contains the largest proportion of black mass.
00:54This is filtered and further processed together with the mass from the coarse material in
00:59the hydrometallurgy.
01:00Here, the metals are first dissolved into a liquid solution by leaching.
01:06The undissolved graphite is separated using filters and then packaged.
01:11The precipitated iron and the aluminum components are treated in the same way.
01:16The valuable raw materials such as copper, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and lithium are
01:21recovered one after the other in a multi-stage chemical separation process.
01:27Cobalt and nickel are then crystallized.
01:30The battery recycling plant has an annual capacity of 2,500 tons.
01:36The recovered materials are fed back into the material cycle and are used in the production
01:41of more than 50,000 battery modules for new all-electric Mercedes-Benz models.
01:48This closes the raw material loop.