2023-09-22 05:19:59
The mining group Eramet and the waste treatment and water management group Suez will set up their future industrial complex for recycling electric vehicle batteries in Dunkirk (North), which should start in 2027, the two groups announced on Friday.
The project includes an upstream dismantling plant with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of battery modules per year – the equivalent of 200,000 electric vehicle batteries – and a downstream plant where metals such as lithium, cobalt and Nickel will be extracted to be reused in the production of new batteries, specifies a press release.
The final investment decision for the project should be made by the end of 2023 for the upstream plant (led by Suez), and by the end of 2024 for the downstream plant (Eramet), for “start-up in 2027”.
Suez will use its expertise in collecting, sorting, preparing, dismantling and recycling materials for the upstream plant.
Eramet has technology developed in its pilot plant in Trappes (Yvelines), regarding to start up, near its research center, where hydrometallurgy techniques have been developed to extract strategic metals from the “blackmass”, the powder from crushed batteries.
The performances obtained during the development process “indicate that it is possible to achieve, or even exceed, the requirements of future European regulations in terms of recycling,” the press release indicates.
European regulations require the recycling, from 2027, of 90% of cobalt, copper and nickel, 50% of lithium, and in 2031, 95% of cobalt, copper and nickel and 80% of lithium.
The amount of investments necessary to build these two factories has not been revealed.
Eramet benefited from a grant of 70 million euros from the European Union and 10 million euros from Bpifrance which “will be used to finance pre-industrialization studies, the construction of factories and the operating costs of the 10 first years of operation.
Dunkirk might thus become a European “hub” for metal and battery recycling, due to its proximity to the future “battery valley” in Hauts-de-France where several battery factory projects have been announced.
The other French mining group Orano also announced in May a project with the Chinese XTC New Energy for the production of critical materials intended for car battery cathodes, which would also be located in Dunkirk, with Orano also planning a battery recycling plant next to.
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