Generally petroleum, oil, or renewable energy is described as black gold. There is a plant in southeastern Norway that produces black gold from used or damaged electric car batteries. The name of this plant is Hydrovolt. It is the largest plant of its kind in Europe.
Nickel, manganese, cobalt, lithium and graphite are extracted from these batteries. These so-called essential minerals are essential components in energy technologies. They are also used to make new batteries.
“The higher the quality of these components, the easier it will be to use them for recycling,” said Grönvold, a laboratory technician at Hydrovolt. Hydrovolt is a joint venture between Norwegian aluminum company Norsk Hydro and Swedish electric battery maker Northvolt. The Hydrovolt plant opened last year in the port city of Fredrikstad. In the next few months, the site is expected to be able to process 12,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery packs here, equivalent to 25,000 electric car batteries per year.
It can be said that Norway is the center of renewable energy sources. The country is also leading in the production of zero-emission electric cars. This ‘black gold’ produced here is also environment friendly.
“It can be said that this battery recycling is an alternative to mines. “We have built a mine in the ground,” said Andreas Friedenswang, Hydrovolt’s director of operations.
Such recycling also helps make Europe a critical powerhouse for these essential minerals and renewable energy, especially as many countries face a crisis in importing these essential minerals due to the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
“In Europe, we have huge market potential for such products. But we don’t actually have the resources to produce them directly”, said Julia Poliskanova, head of electric mobility at the non-governmental organization Transport & Environment.
“We are not a major power in terms of production of copper, cobalt or nickel. Such recycling opportunities should be exploited to the maximum. “You can recycle much faster than you can start a new mine”, added Julia Poliskanova.
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2023-07-03 09:56:46
