The local subsidiary of German luxury automaker BMW says it is partnering with Victorian battery recycler EcoBatt to launch a new electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling program.
The partnership with EcoBatt will focus on recycling high-voltage lithium-ion EV batteries that have been recovered from BMW vehicles, including batteries that have been either damaged or reached the end of their operational life.
The announcement comes less than two months after EcoBatt officially opened the world’s first battery-in-device shredding (BIDS) plant at its headquarters in Campbellfield, Victoria.
“Every home has products with hidden batteries, and until now there hasn’t been a dedicated way to recover them at scale,” said Doug Rowe, CEO of the EcoCycle Group, the parent company of EcoBatt.
“This plant gives Australians confidence that when they recycle, those batteries are managed safely, onshore, and responsibly.”
The plant is capable of processing up to 5,000 tonnes of embedded batteries each year while recovering over 90 per cent of the materials, including metals and plastics. It is capable of processing a range of products including phones, toys, vapes, power tools, as well as EV batteries.
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Recycling batteries from BMW and Mini EVs will be transported from dealers the plant in Campbellfield, where the batteries will be safely discharged and the recovered energy captured to be reused in the facility’s operations, further reducing the carbon output of the recycling process.
The batteries will then be mechanically shredded at the BIDS plant, with the recycling process generating what is known as ‘black mass’, a valuable material that contains lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and graphite.
This black mass will then be supplied to downstream refiners where the minerals and elements are recovered and returned to manufacturing supply chains to eventually produce new high-voltage batteries.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.