BASF to build pre-processing plant in Schwarzheide

The chemical company BASF which is building a cathode production site as well as a recycling plant in Schwarzheide, Germany, has announced it will build a pre-processing plant with a 15,000 tonnes capacity of EV batteries and production scrap in the same location. The plant will be commissioned in 2024.

BASF has previously announced that the company is building a prototype plant in Schwarzheide for recovery of materials used in battery production and in end-of-life batteries. This plant is planned to be commissioned in 2023 and will then be followed by an industrial scale plant in 2025. The actual capacity has not yet been revealed.

With the pre-processing plant BASF becomes yet another player in Europe which will have a full value chain from pre-processing to cathode production, a position which will become more and more important when the new battery regulation in the European Union will enter into force with requirements of recycled content in batteries from 2030.