French startup Battri to open 30,000 tpa pre-processing plant in North France

The startup Battri has completed a funding round of €10M which will be used to set up a pre-processing plant in Saint Laurent Blangy, in the Hauts-de-France region

of France. The area is home to several larger battery and EV producers and also where Orano, Suez and Eramet are setting up battery recycling plants.

In the 15,000 m2 plant, which at full capacity will be able to process 30,000 tonnes of battery cells, EV batteries will be discharged and processed into black mass and other constituents to be further recovered by other recycling companies. The company plans to employ 70 people by the end of 2025. The first operations will start by the end of 2024 presumably at a lower capacity.

Battri has during two years been running a pilot system through which the process has been validated.

At a capacity of 30,000 tonnes the plant will be one of the largest in Europe. It will operate in an area where there already are several plants in the planning but also a need to recycle production scrap from the growing battery industry. And investment of €10M seems challenging for a project like this and should probably be followed by additional investments

With the announcement the pre-processing capacity in Europe is estimated at 700,000 tonnes in 2026 with 126,000 in France. Cell equivalent volumes available for recycling in Europe are estimated to 169,000 tonnes the same year.