By Nina Kienle
BASF said it has entered into an agreement with Sweden’s Stena Recycling for the recycling of electric-vehicle batteries in Europe.
The German chemicals company said Tuesday that the collaboration seeks to improve recycling processes to recover more raw materials used in batteries such as lithium, nickel and cobalt. Financial details weren’t disclosed.
The agreement sees Stena Recycling collect and pre-treat lithium-ion batteries that have reached their end of life and scraps of battery production in its facility in Halmstad, Sweden, to obtain so-called black mass. BASF said it will then further process and refine the black mass in its battery-recycling prototype refinery in Schwarzheide, Germany, to recover valuable metals needed for new batteries.
“The use of recycled metals in the production of new batteries reduces a battery’s carbon footprint significantly,” BASF said.
The agreement is part of a broader collaboration between the two companies aimed at setting up a battery recycling value chain for the European market, BASF said.
Write to Nina Kienle at nina.kienle@wsj.com
