On January 29, 2021, Volkswagen Group Components (part of the Volkswagen Group), officially launched battery recycling at its Salzgitter plant in Germany. https://insideevs.com/news/483097/...rt-battery-recycling-salzgitter/
The project, announced in 2019, is currently in a pilot phase with a daily capacity of 5 battery systems per shift. The annual capacity is up to 3,600 per year, which at 400 kg per battery is about 1,500 tonnes. Volkswagen Jumps Into Battery Recycling - Article from Metal Tech News published FEBRUARY 3, 2021. https://www.metaltechnews.com/story/2021/02/03/...-recycling/457.html The following is an excerpt from the article (interesting statements are CAPITALIZED): "The Salzgitter recycling process does not use an energy-intensive blast furnace to melt down the battery metals for recycling. Instead, the individual parts of dismantled batteries are ground into granules and dried. IN ADDITION to aluminum, copper and plastics, THIS PROCESS YIELDS VALUABLE "BLACK POWDER", which also contains the LITHIUM, nickel, manganese, COBALT, and graphite. These valuable battery materials are separated into individual metals and minerals with hydrometallurgical processes-using water and chemical agents - BY VOLKSWAGEN PARTNERS THAT SPECIALIZE IN METAL SEPARATION.
"As a consequence, essential components of old battery cells can be used to PRODUCE NEW CATHODE MATERIAL," said Mark Möller, head of technical development & E-mobility at Volkswagen. "FROM RESEARCH, WE KNOW THAT RECYCLED BATTERY RAW MATERIALS ARE JUST AS EFFICIENT AS NEW ONES. IN THE FUTURE, WE INTEND TO SUPPORT OUR BATTERY CELL PRODUCTION WITH THE MATERIAL WE RECOVER."
VW was one of the companies named in the business strategy slide (of the AMY PowerPoint presentation). In that slide, the scrap is referred to as "Black Mass" and in the Metal Tech article VW refers to "black powder". Of special interest is the referral to a "VW partner that specializes in metal separation" and that VW "intends to support their battery cell production with the material that they recover." Could it be coincidence that VW is in AMY's presentation and VW mentions partners specializing in metal separation?
Of equal interest is the statement by VW that "From Research, we know that recycled battery raw materials are JUST AS EFFICIENT as new ones." Interestingly enough referring to the AMY Cathode Reactor NR, AMY is providing cathode reactor recycled material to interested third parties for independent verification of performance (or words to that effect). If one of VW's partners is AMY, and if it is AMY's research and samples that VW is referring to, this perhaps nicely fills in the blank of AMY's cathode results re efficiency and performance, and not just purity. Things that make you go Hmm? I am not making any definitive statements re AMY and VW - just providing information that I stumbled upon that makes me wonder if there's a connection. As always, do your own DD. |