How are old electric car batteries recycled?

According to one estimate, more than 12 million tons of lithium-ion batteries will be recovered between now and 2030 and they need to be recycled. So, how are old electric car batteries recycled? Check out Volkswagen's car battery recycling process in Saltzgitter, Germany.

How are old electric car batteries recycled? Picture 1

In early 2021, Volkswagen put into operation an old electric car battery recycling plant in Saltzgitter, Germany. Here, a line with many complicated stages for sorting, useful battery blocks, crushing, drying, separating "sludge" metals such as lithium, manganese, cobalt., helps to recycle 95% used battery pack.

The old battery is disassembled, checked and discharged. The remaining battery cells are kept. Separating the metal and the chemicals in the battery requires several steps. The first is grinding to create a moist mixture of large particles of metal and chemicals. The retained particles are dried and the electrolyte liquid is pumped out, and the dry material is sieved, separating the 'black powder' of lithium, manganese, cobalt and graphite.

Magnetic raw materials are separated from the particles. Non-magnetic metals are isolated from synthetic particles. The result is bags of plastic scraps, a mixture of aluminum and copper, a powdered mixture of lithium, cobalt and other battery metals that can be reused.

Volkswagen's recycling plant can process about 3,600 batteries a year.

Kareem Winters

Update 27 February 2023