Veolia has been specializing in battery treatment and recycling for 30 years. The Group is now able to collect and recycle almost all Li-ion battery technologies from end-of-life batteries or production scraps thanks to its internal recycling process.
Why battery recycling is a real environmental issue
On one hand, the presence of toxic substances in power batteries have impacts on the environment or human health; on the other hand, the plastics, solvents, electronic components, as well as strategic metals like cobalt, nickel, and lithium, contained within power batteries can be extracted through technical means and subsequently utilized as raw materials in new production processes.
Therefore, the recycling and utilization of discarded batteries hold profound significance from the standpoints of environmental preservation and resource recycling. Today, the recycling and utilization of power batteries has become a mandatory requirement involving the environmental, strategic, and regulatory dimensions.
Eco-design
Veolia is working with its ecosystem on the eco-design of EV batteries to facilitate their reuse
and their recycling.
Battery second life
Veolia is developing solutions for battery second-life activities in electrical network flexibility, storage for renewables integration and EV charging stations.
Battery recycling
Veolia is able to safely recycle almost all Li-ion battery technologies thanks to its efficient
internal recycling processes.
Our solutions for recycling electric car batteries
Veolia conducts the recycling of EV batteries in a safe and high efficiency way, accomplishing not only a reduction in resource extraction but also a decrease in the environmental impact associated with discarded batteries. Our solution for recycling electric car batteries is divided into 5 main stages:
- Collection, securing and fully discharging the battery
- Dismantling each component to be sent to the appropriate sector for recycling
- Mechanical separation to extract the black-mass contained in the cells that make up the battery
- Hydrometallurgy to separate and purify the metals contained in the black-mass
- Refining to bring the metals to a degree of purity so they can be reused to make new batteries
How & why video: Recycling electric vehicle batteries
Business case
The project adopts the self-developed hydrometallurgical crushing & sorting process to solve the safety and occupational problems in the process of battery crushing. The comprehensive recovery rate of nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium is more than 98.5%.