Accurec opens new lithium recycling plant in Krefeld

The German recycling company Accurec has inaugurated a new facility at its headquarters for recovering lithium from batteries. According to Accurec, the proprietary recycling process, named 'CLIMA', achieves high yields and qualities exceeding 99 per cent.

Accurec eroeffnung lithium recycling — Accurec CEO Reiner Sojka with EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall
Image: Accurec

Currently, however, the plant’s annual recycling capacity remains undisclosed. In 2022, the company had planned to construct a facility capable of extracting lithium from 4,000 tonnes of used batteries annually, with operations originally slated to begin in 2023. Yet, after a period of silence, the company, joined by EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall and a host of international guests from politics, business, science, and media, officially inaugurated what it describes as a “unique facility in Europe.”

Accurec now reports that it has deployed an “innovative, alternative process chain on an industrial scale” in Krefeld for the first time. This system is designed to recover lithium from all types of lithium-ion batteries. The company’s proprietary thermochemical process transforms critical raw materials into a highly separable form with minimal energy and operational input, enabling efficient extraction.

“With our CLIMA process (Critical Raw Materials Recovery from Li-Battery Waste Management), we achieve yields and purities exceeding 99 per cent. This ensures that urgently needed raw materials remain within Europe, bolstering our resource resilience,” stated Dr Reiner Sojka, Managing Partner of Accurec.

Another key component of the new lithium recovery plant was developed through the EarLi* research project in collaboration with Evonik. The initiative aims to further enhance lithium yield. “Globally, researchers are seeking processes to efficiently recover high-quality lithium from battery waste,” explained Ralph Marquardt, Chief Innovation Officer at Evonik. “Evonik is committed to advancing a solution that supports e-mobility with minimal environmental impact. Using a highly selective ceramic membrane, the lithium dissolved in wastewater is separated electrochemically and isolated as high-purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate.”

As widely recognised, the extraction and recovery of lithium hold strategic significance for the EU. At the plant’s inauguration, EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall emphasised: “Recycling lithium batteries is essential to meeting Europe’s demands in clean energy, digital transformation, sustainable transport, defence, and beyond. The Accurec lithium battery recycling plant stands at the forefront of this critical effort.”

recyclingportal.eu (in German)

This article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition.