The UK’s leading resource management company, Veolia, has announced its first electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling plant in the UK.
With the launch of their new EV battery recycling plant, Veolia will have the capacity to process 20% of the UK’s end-of-life electric vehicle batteries by 2024.
The majority of the materials required for battery manufacturing rely on traditional water and energy intensive processes. It is estimated that 500,000 gallons of water is required to extract one tonne of lithium using this type of mining. Urban mining, or the use of recycled materials, has the ability to reduce water consumption as well as cut greenhouse gas emissions from battery production by up to 50%.
Veolia’s EV battery recycling plant
Veolia’s new facility in Minworth, West Midlands, marks the first step in developing its recycling technology and treatment capacity within the UK, with an anticipated 350,000 tonnes of end-of-life electric vehicle batteries predicted to be in the country by 2040.
The plant will initially discharge and dismantle batteries before the mechanical and chemical separation recycling processes will be completed. In addition, Veolia will utilise its global network in order to establish a full circular economy solution in the next five years to produce battery precursors in Europe.
Gavin Graveson, Veolia’s Senior Executive Vice-President of the Northern Europe Zone concluded: “This is an important first step on the UK’s journey to create an ethical and sustainable supply chain for batteries that will be increasingly necessary as we transition to a greener economy. We will not reach carbon neutrality without increasing our investment and development of new technologies and recycling opportunities.
“As the demand for electric vehicles increases, we will need this facility—and more like it in the UK—to ensure we don’t hit a resource crisis in the next decade. Alongside other projects across the globe, bringing Veolia’s expertise to the UK recognizes the size of the national market and appetite to recycle locally and responsibly. Urban mining is essential if we are to protect raw materials and will in turn create a new, high-skilled industry”.
In March 2021, Groupe Renault, Veolia and Solvay announced a partnership to enable the circular economy of EV battery metals in Europe through closed-loop recycling.
