On October 21, Mercedes-Benz officially opened Europe’s first battery recycling plant based on an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process. As the cooperation partner, Primobius is responsible for the engineering, equipment supply, and installation of the two-stage recycling plant. The integrated solution, which Primobius built for Mercedes-Benz, is aimed at producing high-purity, low-carbon battery materials for reuse in the supply chain.

Dr. Michel Siemon, CEO: “Primobius has put much effort into this project and we are proud to support Mercedes-Benz in achieving its ambitious goals with our efficient, sustainable recycling solution. Together we will generate high-purity, low-carbon footprint battery materials for reuse in the battery supply chain. I am very proud of the entire team and also the excellent collaboration we established with Mercedes-Benz.”

Integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical recycling concept

With Primobius’ technology at its Kuppenheim site, Mercedes-Benz is the first automotive manufacturer worldwide to close the battery material loop with its own recycling plant. The process covers all steps, from shredding the battery modules to drying and processing the battery’s active materials.

While the mechanical process sorts the plastics, copper, aluminum, and iron by type in a complex, multi-stage process, the downstream hydrometallurgical process focuses on the so-called black mass, which is the main product from the mechanical process. Black mass contains the valuable materials that make up the electrodes in battery cells. The valuable metals comprising lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese are extracted individually in a multi-stage chemical process. The process is designed to produce recycled materials of battery-grade quality which can be used to produce new battery cells.

“The reality is that electric vehicles have a very large legacy CO2 footprint from the production phase owing to the whole life carbon emissions associated with the battery raw materials involved. The concept of electromobility can only be sustainable once we succeed in recovering valuable battery materials in an energy-efficient way. That is exactly what we do with our solutions. We are proud to be amongst the first to realize a resource-efficient recycling technology in the heart of Europe,” says Dr. Michel Siemon.

The Mercedes-Benz battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim has an annual capacity of 2,500 tons. The recovered materials will be used to produce more than 50,000 battery modules for new all-electric Mercedes-Benz models. The shredder in Kuppenheim has been in operation since spring 2024, with final commissioning in progress. Final assembly and commissioning of the hydrometallurgical processes will continue gradually after the opening event.