Closing the loop: recycling battery cases

There are about 250 million cars in the European Union, for which approximately 800.000 tons of batteries are needed per year.

The housing of batteries is made of Polypropylene (PP), which can and is being recycled. However, the recycled product is ‘contaminated’ by residues of acid, metal and other, unwanted plastics. Also, these plastics are damaged during the recycling process due to the exposure to heat. This makes the recycled product unsuitable to be re-used as battery housing.

The chemical industry can resolve this by adding stabilisers to the recycled product. Altana’s stabiliser can ensure the thermal stability of the recycled product is increased. How does it do this? It eliminates the ‘contaminants’. In other words, the stabiliser removes the residual acid, neutralises the metal and encapsulates the unwanted plastics.

As a result, the time to embrittlement of the recycled product can now be prolonged by 80%, in a simulated aging test at 120°C in hot air for up to 1.300 hours. As such, the recycled battery housing can be used for the creation of new battery housings that are just as good as the original, creating a closed loop.

Associated SDG targets