Joint Declaration of Intent for the Establishment of a Battery Recycling Center for Li-ion Batteries in the Harz

All participants after successfully signing the memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a battery recycling center. © Automotive Agency Lower Saxony, H. Wolter

Several companies and research institutions from Southeast Lower Saxony are pooling their expertise along the value chain of battery recycling in a joint consortium, thereby promoting the Circular Economy in Lower Saxony.

The recycling of batteries from the automotive industry as well as production waste from cell manufacturing can make a significant contribution to ensuring that products are designed, used, and returned in a circular manner. This is particularly important given the planned regulations on recycling and usage quotas for battery raw materials by the European Union.

A consortium of six companies from the Southeast Lower Saxony region, especially the Harz region, has set the goal, within the framework of a joint recycling center for lithium-ion batteries, together with regional research institutions, to strengthen the Lower Saxony location against national and international players through climate-neutral and circular value creation. The entire project is a building block for further developing the Circular Region in Southeast Lower Saxony, which is the first and only Circular Region in Germany funded by the EU.

Today, the consortium consisting of LB.systems GmbH, Battery Damage Service GmbH, H.C. Starck Tungsten GmbH, Electrocycling GmbH, Albemarle Germany GmbH, as well as IVH Industriepark and Verwertungszentrum Harz GmbH, signed the letter of intent as the first cornerstone of successful collaboration in the premises of Helmkehof in Hanover, in the presence of the Minister of Economics Olaf Lies. The consortium, including the research institutions, primarily sees itself as a competence network that shapes the production cycle from the collection of batteries and production waste through dismantling, mechanical, thermal, and hydrometallurgical processing, up to the synthesis of new battery raw materials. The processes are researched, evaluated, and optimized from technical, economic, and societal perspectives. The planned recycling center consolidates the initiative of the participating companies and serves as a forum for all activities.

Economics Minister Olaf Lies: "The signing of the letter of intent to establish a recycling center for lithium-ion batteries is a great success – not only for the economic location of Lower Saxony, for which the project naturally represents a significant gain. It is also a clear step forward for value creation in the Harz region and for environmental protection: we must use resources sustainably and long-term. An important component of this is establishing a functioning circular economy in Lower Saxony together."

The impetus for successful knowledge and technology transfer came from the Automotive Agency Lower Saxony, which was commissioned by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Transport, Construction, and Digitalization to accompany the transformation. Together with the Recycling Cluster for Strategic Metals (REWIMET e. V.) and with support from renowned research institutions and universities such as TU Braunschweig, TU Clausthal, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface and Coating Technology (Fraunhofer IST), they launched the process with a focus on battery recycling in March 2022.

The consortium has developed an ambitious milestone and measures plan: between 2024 and 2030, industrial-scale facilities are to be established that can process both waste from battery cell production and returned old batteries. "It benefits us that the companies, with their existing expertise, contribute to the overall project in a division of labor. Additionally, they have scientific support from the Technical Universities of Braunschweig and Clausthal, as well as Fraunhofer IST," explained Dr. Dirk Schöps, the Cluster Manager of REWIMET e. V.

In several workshops organized by REWIMET e. V. and moderated by Fraunhofer IST, the desire to implement a continuous process chain for battery recycling in Lower Saxony emerged from the process. The Automotive Agency Lower Saxony supported the process up to the signing of the letter of intent.