Battery recycling closes the loop in elec-tromobility

More and more electric cars are registered worldwide every year. At the same time, the raw materials for the batteries are limited and their mining is associated with negative environmental impact. BASF researchers at the Ludwigshafen site therefore develop a new chemical process to recycle the lithium contained in the battery in high purity. This will also avoid waste and reduce the CO2 footprint compared to state-of-the-art recycling processes. During the production of the so-called "black mass", metallic fractions are separated. These include aluminum foils on which the cathode active material was applied. Different mechanical processing steps lead to either coarse or fine metal fractions, which can also be recycled afterwards.