Battery recycling, Bosch to build Europe’s first automated plant

Bosch has showed the intention to buils Europe’s first fully automated battery-discharging plant. More precisely, the subsidiary Bosch Rexroth is supplying Battery Lifecycle Company, a joint venture between Remondis subsidiary TSR Recycling and Rhenus Automotive, with Europe’s first fully automated system for discharging and disassembling battery modules.

Battery Lifecycle Company is building Europe’s first fully automated plant at its site in Magdeburg, with Bosch Rexroth supplying the technology. The site will test used batteries from different manufacturers, deep-discharge them, and prepare them for subsequent shredding. The new plant’s workpiece carriers will each transport battery materials weighing up to 150 kg at a speed of 18 meters per second.

Battery recycling: the Bosch way

Experts from Fraunhofer ISI predict that by 2030, Europe will require recycling capacity for up to 420,000 metric tons of battery material each year. “If we want to build a European circular economy, we need to integrate recycling firmly into the product life cycle and create the necessary infrastructure to do so”, stated Stefan Hartung, chairman of the Bosch board of management.

“The batteries currently being installed in vehicles will have reached the end of their life in 10 to 15 years. We must use this window of opportunity to build the necessary recycling capacity,” added Steffen Haack, CEO of Bosch Rexroth. Recycling will be worthwhile: optimum recycling can recover up to 95 percent of a battery’s chemical elements and recycle them into the battery production process. The automated discharging system developed by Bosch not only simplifies recycling, but also increases efficiency and enhances safety: it takes just a few minutes to deep-discharge a module.