Finnish State-owned energy company, Fortum announced an expansion of its EV battery recycling operation with a new processing plant in Finland.
The announcement came in conjunction with the launch of Finland’s National Battery Strategy that aims to make the country a pioneer in sustainable battery manufacturing. The new mechanical recycling processing plant will be opened this month (February 2021) in Ikaalinen, Finland.
“Our new plant in Ikaalinen will enable us to leverage our existing recycling operations in Finland and will give us the annual capacity to recycle approximately 3,000 tonnes of used batteries, corresponding to about 10,000 EV batteries,” says Tero Holländer, Head of Business Line Batteries at Fortum.
Mr. Holländer confirmed the company plans to gradually increase this capacity in the coming months to bridge the raw material gap faced by the automotive industry working towards electrification of transportation.
“Providing recycled and sustainable raw materials for batteries will bring significant value not only to our partners and customers but also to Finland’s battery industry, which is well poised to take the lead in the supply chain for EV batteries,” he added.
The new plant in Ikaalinen will complement Fortum’s existing hydrometallurgical pilot facility in Harjavalta, Finland, which is already capable of operating on an industrial scale.
At present, several operators recycle battery metals by smelting which results in lower material recovery rates and higher emission, however, Fortum’s recycling operations use both mechanical and hydrometallurgical methods for recycling batteries.
This approach can reach a recovery rate of up to 95 percent of the metals included in the valuable active materials of a battery’s black mass, Fortum said in a statement.
For Fortum, which has been developing new and increasingly efficient ways to optimize the entire lifecycle of lithium-ion batteries for several years now, partnering with industrial and infrastructure customers remains a strategic priority as it aims to further expand its battery operations.
By Shraddha Kakade
Asst. Editor, Emerging Technology News