Espen Barth Eide, the minister of climate and environment in Norway, went straight from the climate summit COP27 in Egypt to Fredrikstad, where he visited Hydrovolt and six local companies that focus their business on recycling and reducing emissions.
Picture from left: Åsa Bengtsson (Hydrovolt), Espen Barth Eide (Klima- og Miljøminister), Fredrik Andresen (Batteriretur) og Morten Halleraker (Hydro Batteries).
Sustainable recycling
At Hydrovolt, the minister, together with the mayor of Fredrikstad, Siri Martinsen, discovered black mass – the most valuable fraction that we recover.
“Black mass is a powder containing metals of nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium”,
Åsa Bengtsson, chief quality officer at Hydrovolt, explained Barth Eide and Martinsen when showing Hydrovolt and Batteriretur’s facilities at Øra in Fredrikstad.
Part of Fit for 55
Barth Eide was very impressed with what he saw. The European Parliament and Council have decided that by 2035, all new cars and vans registered in Europe will be zero-emission, which is paving the way for a massive need for recycling of electric car batteries. As an early mover, Hydrovolt is positioned to take a huge part of this market.
Hydrovolt, which is a Northvolt and Hydro joint venture, has in short time become Europe’s largest electric vehicle battery recycling plant, with a capacity to process 12 000 tons of battery packs annually. That is sufficient to recycle the entirety Norwegian end-of-life battery market.
Expanding to other countries
The fully automated recycling process is enabling 95 percent of battery materials to be recovered from batteries, including black mass, which will be supplied to Northvolt for further recycling to support Northvolt’s goal of using 50 per cent recycled material in battery production by 2030.
Hydrovolt is exploring an expansion of its recycling capacity in Europe, with a long-term target to recycle approximately 70 000 tons of battery packs by 2025 and 300 000 tons of battery packs by 2030.