BASF German battery recycling plant put into operation

Recently, BASF announced that the Black Mass plant in Schwarzheide, Germany has been successfully put into commercial operation. This advanced facility represents an important milestone in BASF's battery recycling business. It is one of the largest Black Mass commercial plants in Europe, with an annual processing capacity of up to 15,000 tons of scrapped lithium-ion batteries and production waste, equivalent to about 40,000 electric vehicle batteries per year.

Battery recycling is a key factor in increasing independence from primary raw material sources and meeting the ambitious requirements of circular economy policies. Black slurry production is a key step in the battery recycling process, based on the mechanical treatment of batteries. Black slurry contains a large amount of key metals used in the production of positive active materials (CAM): lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. These valuable metals can be recovered by chemical methods and used to produce new CAM, which can achieve recycling and reduce carbon footprint compared to using only primary raw materials.

BASF’s services in Europe cover all aspects of the battery recycling value chain, from the collection, discharge and dismantling of used batteries and production waste to the production and refining of Black Mass – in addition to BASF’s own Black Mass production facilities, it also leverages a strong and reliable partner network.

In addition to the new Black Mass production facility, BASF also operates Europe’s first fully automated CAM production facility in Schwarzheide, a prototype metal refinery for battery recycling, and one of the largest Black Mass storage facilities in Europe.