New Opportunities for Old Batteries
When today’s e-vehicles end up in tomorrow’s junkyards, then hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lithium-ion batteries need to be disposed of or recycled around the world. Recycling these batteries is the special competence of the Nickelhütte Aue GmbH.
The company is currently reconditioning automotive and energy storage batteries, which require special handling expertise. The valuable metals nickel, copper and cobalt are recovered. These can be used to produce chemicals for the production of new batteries, among other things. Nickelhütte is further expanding its annual capacity in this area in order to prepare for the long-term increase in recycling demand for lithium-ion batteries.
The company, with its 400-year tradition as a smelting and recycling company, is closing the material cycle for various non-ferrous metals. Nickelhütte extracts non-ferrous metal concentrates containing nickel, cobalt and copper from non-ferrous metal scrap, electroplating sludge and residues from metal processing as well as natural gas and crude oil refining in its smelting plant and roasting plant. Chemicals from the electrical industry, used catalysts, filter dust and transformers are also processed and refined into non-ferrous metal concentrates as well as Ni, Cu, Co and V chemicals. The recycling materials are bought and sold worldwide. The company is an important supplier of nickel concentrates, nickel salts and nickel and copper-based alloys on the global market.
Nickelhütte Aue GmbH