Towards the mass recycling of rare metals from electric car batteries in Europe

PARIS: The challenge of recycling rare earths has both ecological and economic dimensions. In 10 years' time, all the lithium recycled in Europe alone could help produce over two million electric cars.

In theory, the recycling capacities of the EU and the UK should provide enough lithium for the batteries of 2.4 million vehicles in 2035, equivalent to 15% of European demand, according to the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E).

Within 10 years, recycling could also provide 13% of the manganese, 25% of the nickel and 62% of the cobalt needed for the European market. And this would only be the beginning, since by 2040, Europe could even be almost self-sufficient in cobalt for electric cars.

The research shows that recycling these metals in Europe could avert the need to build the equivalent of 12 new mines worldwide by 2040 (four for lithium and cobalt, three for nickel and one for manganese).

According to T&E, if Europe were to implement all its recycling projects, it could considerably reduce its dependence on imported rare earths, and several million new vehicles could be fitted with batteries partly made from these recovered metals.

Recycling metals from electric car batteries is a key issue in the transition to all-electric power.

The objectives are both ecological — reducing rare-earth mining and waste — and economic, by reducing dependence on imports and cutting costs. This is why numerous experiments are currently under way to help recover and recycle rare metals from batteries.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, for example, are working on the role of certain bacteria in recovering these metals from used batteries.

The idea is to use them to recycle as many of these materials as possible, which are useful in the production of electric cars and wind turbines.

In France, a pilot plant for recycling electric vehicle batteries recently opened in Trappes.

Its aim is to extract precious metals from used batteries, so that they can be reintroduced into a new production cycle. This pilot plant is actually a 1:1,000 replica of the one due to open in Dunkirk in 2027.