From used to recycled electric vehicle battery metals in one loop

With the number of electric vehicles on the road expected to grow from 10 million in 2020 to over 100 million by 2030 worldwide, ensuring stable access to responsibly sourced battery materials is a strategic challenge. One way of addressing this challenge, is by establishing a secure and sustainable supply source for strategic battery metals.

Three players from the chemical industry, the automotive industry and the water, waste and management solutions sector have done exactly that! Solvay, Groupe Renault, and Veolia have formed a consortium to create a closed recycling loop for electric vehicle battery metals in Europe.

Each company has their own role to play:  Groupe Renault will collect the end-of-life electric vehicle batteries from their customers and hand them over to Veolia. Through Solvay and Veolia’s joint innovative technology, strategic metals will be extracted from these batteries and purified into high-purity metals ready to be reused in new batteries.

Currently, the three partners are setting up a pre-industrial demonstration plant in France with the capability to extract and purify end-of-life EV battery metals. Working in this manner will reduce the environmental footprint of future electric vehicle batteries through this closed loop, preserving resources, reducing carbon emissions and creating value.

Associated SDG targets