Battery Recycling | BMW to Open Battery Recycling Centre in Bavaria

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Battery Recycling | BMW to Open Battery Recycling Centre in Bavaria

Date：2024-11-29

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Keyword tags： Battery Recycling EU BMW

BMW Group is establishing a battery recycling technology centre in Kirchroth, Lower Bavaria, where the company will put into practice a process known as direct recycling.

Recently, BMW announced plans to open a new battery recycling centre, the Cell Recycling Competence Centre (CRCC), in the Bavarian town of Kirchroth, located in the Straubing-Bogen district of Lower Bavaria. According to the German automaker, the new centre will employ a process called "direct recycling," which enables residual materials from battery cell production, as well as whole battery cells, to be mechanically dismantled into their valuable components.

The process mainly focuses on extracting lithium and cobalt and will also recover graphite, manganese, nickel, and copper from old batteries. The recycled raw materials will then be directly reused in the pilot production of battery cells at BMW's Battery Cell Competence Centres (BCCC).

BMW notes that the main characteristic of direct recycling, unlike conventional recycling methods, is that raw materials from battery cells are not reverted to their original state but are instead fed back "directly" into the cell production cycle. This method dispenses with the previously common energy-intensive chemical or thermal processing steps.

This direct recycling method was jointly developed by BMW Group's internal Battery Technology Centre (BCCC) in Munich and the Cell Manufacturing Competence Centre (CMCC) in Parsdorf, and the intellectual property is fully owned by BMW Group. These two centres are responsible for the research and development and pilot testing of BMW Group's large cylindrical and solid-state batteries.

BMW will invest approximately 10 million euros in the new battery recycling centre (CRCC), which spans an area of 2,200 square meters and will be integrated into the expansion of an existing building in the Kirchroth-Nord industrial park near Straubing. Installation work at the facility is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2025. Once construction is completed, validation of BMW's in-house developed "direct recycling" method in near-series processes will commence, with a staff size of 20 people and an expected annual recycling capacity of around 50 tonnes of materials needed for battery cell production.

The new recycling centre will be operated by a joint venture between BMW Group and Interzero Group, with both partners developing and implementing logistics and consulting solutions in areas such as collection, recycling, and remanufacturing of vehicle components, each holding a 50% stake in the company.

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