Eramet inaugurates a pilot plant for the recycling of electric
vehicle batteries
Paris, November 14, 2023, 2 PM CET
PRESS RELEASE
Eramet inaugurates a pilot plant for the
recycling of electric vehicle batteries
Eramet is inaugurating a pilot plant at
its Research & Innovation center close to Paris (Trappes) to
test and optimize the production of battery-grade metal salts from
black mass from recycled lithium-ion batteries.
This facility is a 1:1,000 scale replica
of the plant due to be built in Dunkirk (59), with start-up
scheduled for 2027, subject to a final investment decision expected
by the end of 2024.
The creation of this pilot plant is a
key stage for this project carried out in partnership with SUEZ and
aiming to offer a closed-loop industrial recycling solution for
end-of-life batteries and scrap from the production of new
batteries.
Thanks to its expertise in hydrometallurgy,
Eramet’s Research & Innovation Centre, which employs 200
researchers and engineers, has developed a process that can
infinitely recycle more than 90% of the strategic metals (nickel,
cobalt, lithium) contained in the blackmass of end-of-life
batteries and in scrap from gigafactory production.
The high-purity metal salts obtained by this
process and produced in Dunkirk will be used to supply the European
electric battery industry, helping to reduce the continent's
dependence on the import of critical metals.
The 800 m² pilot plant will be used to test
and optimise the extraction and refining process for these metals
on a pre-industrial scale, and to qualify the end products for
future customers and partners.
This project has received €80 million in
financial support from the European Union's Innovation Fund and
BPI, through its "Critical Metals Call for Projects". These funds
will be used to finance pre-industrialisation studies, plant
construction and operating costs for the first 10 years of
operation.
Two internationally renowned players at
the service of the French recycling sector
This official opening is an important milestone
in the execution of the project carried out in partnership with
SUEZ. The plan is to build two plants in Dunkirk:
- an “upstream”
plant managed by SUEZ to dismantle, crush and separate the various
components of the batteries to produce blackmass, a black powder
containing the strategic metals nickel, cobalt and lithium. The
plant will eventually have a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of battery
modules per year, equivalent to 200,000 electric vehicle
batteries.
- a “downstream”
hydrometallurgy plant managed by Eramet, responsible for extracting
and refining the strategic metals contained in the blackmass to
produce 5,000 tonnes of nickel, 1,000 tonnes of cobalt and 5,000
tonnes of lithium a year in the form of battery-grade metal salts
using the process tested at the Trappes pilot plant.
The final investment decision for the project is
expected to be made by the end of 2023 for the upstream plant, for
a start-up of the site in 2025, and by the end of 2024 for the
downstream plant, for a start-up in 2027. The project as a whole
will thus provide a comprehensive industrial response in line with
the regulatory requirements set by the European Commission in terms
of recycling efficiency and recovery of strategic metals.
It aligns with Eramet and SUEZ’s shared ambition
to promote ecological transition and a circular economy.
Eramet, a key player in the lithium
value chain
With the creation of this pilot plant, Eramet is
firmly establishing itself as a key player in the lithium value
chain.
As a technology leader in the recycling of
lithium-ion battery black mass, Eramet will soon become Europe's
leading producer of lithium carbonate by volume, with the
Centenario (Argentina) site scheduled to come on stream in the
second quarter of 2024, with production capacity set to reach
24,000 tonnes a year by mid-2025. The Group will deploy its direct
extraction technology, which is among the most efficient in the
world (lithium extraction rate in brines of around 90%) – another
technology developed and patented by Eramet Research and Innovation
Centre.
The Group is also working in cooperation with
Electricité de Strasbourg on the AGELI project, which aims to
produce 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year from geothermal
sources located in Alsace (Northeastern France). Production could
start up by the end of the decade, subject to the results of
ongoing studies and an investment decision.
Speaking at the inauguration, Christel Bories,
Chairman and CEO of Eramet, said: “After developing one of the most
efficient direct lithium extraction technologies in the world, our
Research and Innovation Centre is once again demonstrating its
excellence and expertise in the hydrometallurgy of critical metals.
This technological advance positions us, with our partner SUEZ, as
tomorrow’s leaders in the recovery of “urban mines”, the millions
of electric batteries that need to be recycled and recovered in
Europe.”
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Energy
Transition, said: “This Eramet - SUEZ project, winner of France
2030, is an important and exemplary project. This is important in
order not to switch from one dependency to another, as critical
metals are now at the heart of all strategic value chains in the
zero-carbon economy. It is exemplary because it embodies the
absolute necessity of including sobriety in all our public
policies. This project, which will allow us to recycle the electric
batteries of our cars, the demand for which will be multiplied by
at least ten by 2030, is also about sobriety in the use of metals
by reducing the consumption of our planet's primary resources by
offering low-carbon recycled metals.”
ABOUT ERAMET
Eramet transforms the Earth’s mineral resources
to provide sustainable and responsible solutions to the growth of
the industry and to the challenges of the energy transition.
Its employees are committed to this through
their civic and contributory approach in all the countries where
the mining and metallurgical group is present.
Manganese, nickel, mineral sands, lithium, and
cobalt: Eramet recovers and develops metals that are essential to
the construction of a more sustainable world.
As a privileged partner of its industrial
clients, the Group contributes to making robust and resistant
infrastructures and constructions, more efficient means of
mobility, safer health tools and more efficient telecommunications
devices.
Fully committed to the era of metals, Eramet’s
ambition is to become a reference for the responsible
transformation of the Earth’s mineral resources for living well
together.
www.eramet.com
INVESTOR
CONTACTDirector of Investor
RelationsSandrine Nourry-DabiT. +33 1 45
38 37 02 sandrine.nourrydabi@eramet.com |
PRESS
CONTACTMedia relations
managerFanny
Mounierfanny.mounier@eramet.comT. +33 7 65 26 46
83 Image 7Marie ArtznerT.
+33 1 53 70 74 31 | M. +33 6 75 74 31 73martzner@image7.fr |
- 2023-11-14-Eramet-PR-Demo plant inauguration
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