BASF to get BHS-Sonthofen battery recycling

The machinery and processing plant from BHS-Sonthofen are being set up at BASF’s new German battery production site to recycle lithium-ion batteries, including from vehicles.
Highway & Network Management / September 11, 2023 1 minute Read
By David Arminas
BASF’s plant near Brandenburg is seen as an important step towards closing the loop for the European battery value chain and raw material supply (image courtesy BASF)

BHS-Sonthofen, a specialist in machine and plant engineering, is supplying BASF with a plant for the mechanical reprocessing of lithium-ion batteries into black mass.

In June 2023, BASF opened in Schwarzheide, Brandenburg, what it says is Europe's first co-located centre for battery material production and battery recycling. A significant component is the plant supplied by BHS for the mechanical processing of lithium-ion batteries. This plant is seen as an important step towards closing the loop for the European battery value chain and raw material supply, ultimately reducing the CO₂ footprint.

The BHS-Sonthofen machinery and systems will start full-scall operation next year and have an annual  processing capacity of 15,000 tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries and scrap from battery production. The black mass produced by shredding the batteries contains valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt and lithium, which undergo chemical extraction in a subsequent processing step at BASF. These metals are then used in the production of new battery materials.

The Recycling Technology division of BHS-Sonthofen - an owner-operated group of companies - offers process solutions as well as a range of machine technology with modern control solutions for the recycling and waste disposal industries.

This marks the third large-scale plant for BHS, with the first one having operated successfully for over a year. “In the period of just over two years, we have successfully implemented two large-scale plants in Europe in addition to two pilot plants in the field of battery recycling,” said Daniel Zeiler, vice president in the Recycling Technology Business Unit at BHS-Sonthofen. “With the third large-scale project, we are now reaching a high degree of maturity of a still very young, novel recycling process.”
 

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