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chain and alternative strategies to pro- cobalt, nickel, platinum and rare CONSIDERABLE POTENTIAL
tect against these procurement risks.” earths as crucial, but considers them FOR RECYCLING CONCEPTS
The industry also gets the message. to be “available in sufficient quantities
As does the European political estab- to allow the switch to climate-friendly At the same time, the commercial
lishment, which demands a recycling electric mobility.” A company spokes- potential of recycling concepts is very
rate of 50 % in its Battery Directive. person informed us that “the long-term promising, as reflected, for example,
And even China, which really cannot supply of these materials can only be in the conclusions made by the govern-
complain about a shortage of raw mate- secured if they are mined in an environ- ment-funded recycling projects Litho-
rials, has this year required all drive mentally and socially acceptable way Rec II [7], EcoBatRec [8], LiBRi [9]
batteries from electric vehicles to be as well as in justifiable quantities.” and StaTrak [10], which focus on resid-
recycled. For this purpose, manufactur- But is this enough? ual service life, product design and
ers must set up special collection points, Consulting institute Macquarie recycling technologies among others.
where batteries no longer in use can be Research [5] estimates the cobalt deficit Christian Hanisch, who, as Managing
handed over properly and in due form. at over 885 t, and it’s only getting Director of Duesenfeld, a company
Moreover, the battery design must allow worse. And since mobile phone compa- based in Braunschweig, Germany,
for automated recycling. Which makes nies also need cobalt for their batteries, concentrates exclusively on recycling
a recycling model for old electric-vehicle analysts at Bloomberg New Energy lithium-ion batteries, explains in an
batteries a top priority. Finance forecast that demand for cobalt interview with ATZ that the recycling
will increase up to 47-fold by 2030. So a process is no longer rocket science, but
shortage is inevitable, even with recy- often “remains bogged down by tradi-
REDUCING THE PRIMARY
RAW MATERIAL DEMAND cling, warns Frank Treffer, Head of tional structures.” Unlike most battery
OVER THE LONG TERM Umicore Battery Recycling in Hanau, recyclers, who use a smelting furnace to
Germany. “With 10 million batteries melt down the cells arranged together in
Besides extending the longevity and from electrical vehicles alone, weighing modules and subsequently extract the
maintainability of lithium-ion batteries, anywhere between 10 and 100 kg, this raw materials contained in the melt,
the Volkswagen Group sees recycling as will mean recycling systems having to Duesenfeld goes a different way. A way
key to “reduce the demand for primary handle several 100,000 t a year in that promises far greater recycling effi-
raw materials long term, while optimiz- Europe alone in future. If the recycling ciency in the process.
ing battery costs and the environmental requirements from other applicable That said, Duesenfeld also only starts
balance,” as the company informed us in fields are also included, recycling recycling the battery modules and cells
response to our inquiry. “Research into capacities will be needed in 20 to 30 after the battery management systems
this has been under way since 2009.” years’ time that we ought to be estab- have been removed (electronics recy-
Daimler also sees raw materials like lishing now” [6]. cling) together with the battery casing

TWO QUESTIONS FOR …

ATZ _ Cobalt could soon be replaced Europe is slow in developing recycling for
by other materials in the near future. electric-vehicle batteries, whereas China
Do these new cell chemicals constitute is making large-scale plans. Do you expect
a major problem for recycling? a competitive disadvantage?
HANISCH _ No. But we can only get There is every indication that pioneer-
out of a battery what was built into ing laws and regulations will soon
it in the first place. If the cobalt govern the recycling of electric-vehicle
and nickel are replaced, the lithium batteries in China. Accordingly, proac-
© Duesenfeld still remains to be tackled. We can tive Chinese national strategies in raw
materials policy as well as in the promo-
already do that on a development
tion of electric mobility are helping cata-
scale. It would also be advantageous
to see exactly the combination of lyze the development of a recycling indus-
Christian Hanisch materials it contains from the out- try. However, aged lithium-ion batteries
Managing Director, Duesenfeld GmbH side. Paving the way for the battery demand very high safety precautions
materials to be processed even more for transpor tation, making it very costly,
systematically and – I’m sure – saving so there will still be batteries around in
process chemicals and energy to boot. Europe for recycling.

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