Neometals’ joint venture (JV) company Primobius has received an order from Mercedes-Benz to supply a 10-tonne per day lithium-ion battery (LIB) shredding plant for the global vehicle manufacturing giant’s new recycling operation at Kuppenheim in southern Germany.
Once completed, the “spoke” plant is expected to have an annual capacity of 2500 tonnes and is designed to primarily recover lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and other materials. The materials will then be recycled into the production of a planned 50,000 battery modules that will be installed into new Mercedes vehicles.
Installation is expected to begin in this year’s final quarter, with commissioning slated to start in the following quarter.
Primobius is a JV vehicle held equally by Neometals, an Australian sustainable battery materials producer, and global plant manufacturer SMS group. It will be responsible for the fabrication, installation and commissioning of the Mercedes LIB recycling plant.
Neometals’ managing director Chris Reed says: “We are honoured to supply and support Mercedes in its journey to lead the closed-loop recycling of lithium batteries by automakers. Our long-term collaboration will ensure our process remains at the leading edge, able to process the latest innovations in cell chemistry, format and function. The Spoke is ready to be offered to our business development pipeline and the Hub will soon be product ready. Primobius looks forward to working with Mercedes to scaleup the technology and provide an industrial scale recycling solution to meet their future needs.”
The company anticipates that the shredding plant order will be closely followed by a further Mercedes request for its project’s 10-tonne per day “hub”. Together with the shredding spoke, it will comprise Mercedes’ entire fully-integrated, closed-loop LIB recycling plant.
Neometals says the spoke is product-ready and can be supplied to existing licensees and new customers, while the planned Mercedes hub is scheduled to be product-ready this quarter.
The new plant represents a significant philosophical and operational shift for Mercedes, as it will be the company’s first foray into the LIB recycling sphere of its operations. It says it is intended to reduce resource consumption and establish closed-loop recycling of battery raw materials as the company moves towards the production of electric vehicles (EVs).
The combined Mercedes orders also represent a major milestone for Primobius, as they constitute its first commercial recycling plant supply agreement to a global EV manufacturer – and its first significant revenue collection.
The game-changing installation for Mercedes is seen by Neometals as a strong validation of Primobius’ technology being able to meet the needs of global manufacturers and the wider automotive industry.
It is a significant feather in the cap for the company’s battery materials recycling and recovery technologies that are focussed on reducing reliance on single-path mining and processing and will support more sustainable economic principles.
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