Seventh industrial lithium-ion battery recycling plant commissioned

Recovery of over 98 % black mass

The plant runs in normal operation with good technical availability. Assembly of the project took about four months, with the plant being integrated into an existing building. The ramp-up has been completed and ERLOS, a subsidiary of WP Holding GmbH, is currently generating 1 t/h of throughput, enabling the company in Saxony to provide services to customers. As a result, around 3500 t of batteries can be recycled annually in two-shift operation. ERLOS had already operated a pilot plant with a lower throughput previously. With the URT line, ERLOS is now in fully automatic operation. A key advantage of the thermomechanical process applied is the preservation of lithium in the black mass. The URT technology enables over 98 % of the dry black mass to be recovered. The black mass contains valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium.

Acting Partner Peter Heßler emphasizes the successful cooperation with ERLOS: “For our customer, technology is the main focus. This results in very open and honest communication. The exchange of material analyses helps us to further optimize process parameters. ERLOS is very experienced in battery recycling, which allows us to project at a high level and discuss details.”

Reliability due to a holistic concept

The advantage of the German plant manufacturer can be found in its comprehensive expertise. URT offers complete plant concepts by engineering and supplying turnkey plants. In this way, the company serves as the exclusive point of contact, which helps to avoid interface problems. Together with trusted suppliers, the company develops and refines new techniques and technologies to ensure that the application units are constantly optimized. Phillip Steinbock, ERLOS operations manager for battery recycling, Philip Steinbock, underlines the successful cooperation: “For ERLOS Produktion und Montagen GmbH, URT has proven to be the best possible partner for battery recycling. Despite the challenges that such a project entails, all topics were clearly addressed collaboratively and work was always solution-oriented. The plant technology meets the expectations of ERLOS and all stakeholders in terms of both operation and performance. With this technology, we are prepared for the increasing challenges of recycling.”

Know-how in all project phases

The plants already built by URT have enabled the company to gain extensive knowledge, including expertise regarding permission procedures. With this expertise, URT supports customers worldwide and addresses the respective national requirements, such as the TA-Luft regulation in Germany. These requirements range from electrical control systems and pressure vessels to safety devices. In this context, two areas are essential: plant safety with fire and explosion protection, and emissions.

The company‘s many years of expertise in recycling plant construction is due not only to research and development but also to its participation in conferences. “This is an adequate way of gathering information. It enables us to maintain contact with OEMs and recyclers worldwide and to constantly check whether our plant concepts meet customer requirements. One of the reasons we can do this is the 30 years we have been in the business of building recycling plants,” says Heßler.

Expertise gained from years of experience in plant engineering

In 2019, the first plant was built at Volkswagen AG in Salzgitter. With over 10 years of experience in lithium-ion battery recycling technology and over 30 years of experience in plant engineering for WEEE recycling, customers benefit from investment security. “The operating parameters and experience gained from our plants already in regular operation provide us with a very diverse input on a daily basis. This is how we generate important know-how essential for the further development of our technology,” comments Rainer Hock, CTO of URT Umwelt- und Recyclingtechnik GmbH.

Crucial to the success of the recycling technology is the prior knowledge gained from the construction of WEEE recycling plants with regard to inert shredding, airlock technology and diffuse emissions. Hessler emphasizes the release of solvents from the electrolytes. In this way, knowledge about explosion and flammability risks can be reused. This is a key factor for plant and operational safety.

Providing excellent service is a key factor

In order operate the plant technology in a sustainably efficient manner, URT values the importance of a professional customer support system. This includes an online maintenance system that allows the company to respond quickly to plant malfunctions. Trained service personnel are also available to arrive on site quickly if necessary. Above all, URT attaches great importance to training customers to carry out valuable preventive maintenance work independently. In this context, the company has developed a special spare and wear parts concept that serves as the basis for the regular replacement and wear parts exchange.

Another component of the service concept, which ERLOS has also implemented, pool cutting system that is aimed towards shredding technology. The shredding result influences the downstream separation technology and the throughput rate and is therefore crucial for an optimal recycling process. With the rental system offered by URT, the customer is provided with suitable spare parts from the company‘s cutting unit pool, which are replaced by trained service teams with new or overhauled cutting units as they wear out. This avoids high new procurement costs and ensures a high degree of flexibility.

Political support and upcoming projects

Saxony‘s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer attended the opening event of the new ERLOS plant. He highlighted the importance of a functioning circular economy as the basis for future-oriented value creation: “We must not consume the raw materials that we receive, as we did in the past, but instead return them to a closed cycle.”

Peter Heßler stresses the crucial role of politics as a central stakeholder in this respect. Process engineering is supported by legal requirements relating to recovery rates. The European Commission has published a regulatory framework that specifies the return of batteries for recycling (European Commission, 2023).

The international requirement for the recovery of recyclable materials is significant, and capacities must be expanded in line with the increasing quantities being returned. In the field of electromobility in particular, two main reasons can be identified: on the one hand, the return of batteries from vehicles that are already on the market is beginning to take place. Although end-of-life quantities are slowly increasing, this trend is not yet noticeable in all countries. Another important factor relates to the production waste that is currently being generated by giga-factories and new cell factories. This waste, such as cell packs, can equally be efficiently treated using the plant concepts of URT Umwelt- und Recyclingtechnik GmbH. Furthermore, the positive forecast is based on the scenario of phasing out combustion engine technology. During this period, a large proportion of electric mobility will be established on the market.

URT is currently operating projects in all phases. Seven industrial lithium-ion battery plants are already in operation, producing black mass on a daily basis. Four further projects are under construction worldwide while others are currently in the planning process. The plants developed by URT can process up to 4 t of lithium-ion batteries per hour. Depending on the input requirements and emission guidelines of the country, the plants are always custom-built. Therefore, it is possible for the plant throughput to be doubled by retrofitting.