BASF to Build New Commercial Battery Recycling Black Powder Production Plant

BASF announced on June 21 that it will build a commercial production facility for black powder in Schwarzheide, Germany, whose raw materials will be derived from battery recycling and production waste.

This investment further strengthens BASF's Schwarzheide site as a center for the production and recycling of cathode active materials (CAM). With many electric vehicle manufacturers and battery producers in Central Europe, Schwarzheide is an ideal location for building a battery recycling-related industry. The investment will provide around 30 new production jobs and is scheduled to start in early 2024.

The first step in the battery recycling process is mechanical processing (of used batteries) to obtain a substance called "black powder". These black powders contain a large amount of important metals used in the production of cathode active materials: lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese, and they will be used in BASF's planned new commercial hydro-smelting plant around 2025 to realize the recycling of used batteries.