“Foresight will distinguish success from failure.” For Cesaro Mac Import and MTB, this has been a mantra since 2020, when the COVID emergency struck the world. Like many others, these companies realized the high cost of being unprepared.
With the ever-growing demand for electric mobility powered by lithium batteries and the European deadline banning the sale of diesel cars, it has become essential to focus on recycling these vehicles and, more critically, the end-of-life lithium cells. Addressing this issue means increasing Europe’s capacity to recover critical raw materials and reducing dependency on China. This challenge involves significant engineering and safety regulatory efforts. However, the problem is already apparent. Lithium batteries pose substantial risks to facilities due to their flammability and the subsequent challenges in recovering electrolytes—risks carefully calculated by MTB!
What was complex and theoretical until recently is now a reality. MTB presents the results of five years of research and development and showcases its expertise in lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling with a line operational for a year in Lyon, France. This recycling facility operates two shifts to process lithium batteries.
This well-established know-how continues to evolve for greater efficiency, ensuring maximum recovery along the value chain. MTB’s facility can recycle end-of-life lithium-ion batteries with a processing capacity of 1 to 4 tons per hour.
MTB has developed a new range of specialized shredders featuring a sealed cutting chamber, a hydraulic pusher to optimize productivity, and a “tight” compensation chamber where oxygen is entirely removed to prevent any ignition or thermal reactions. Without oxygen, combustion is impossible.
This solution offers numerous advantages. Notably, it eliminates the need for pre-shredding with shears or underwater shredding solutions, which incur high effluent treatment costs.
A continuous electrolyte evaporation system extracts flammable components from the batteries. Developed in collaboration with REVTECH (based in Loriol-sur-Drôme, France), this solution removes the need for block suction systems, which require costly maintenance.
Finally, MTB has implemented synoptic sorting of various solid components to maximize overall recycling, achieving over 85% recovery of the total battery components. The solution recovers more than 95% of the so-called “Black Mass,” composed of rare metals, with a purity exceeding 98%. These outstanding results are due to a densification solution for metal foils (electrodes) that optimally releases the black mass and a densimetric separation process for non-ferrous metals.
This is followed by the recovery of ferrous metals using modular magnetic field electromagnets and, finally, the sorting of plastic materials.
This line operates five days a week and serves as a demonstration plant for the commercialization of industrial recycling lines for recyclers and gigafactories. Soon, this unit will integrate an additional innovation: the Drycell BOX, combining the final selection stages in two 40-foot containers. Used separately, the Drycell BOX enables the recycling of dry production waste from gigafactories (anodes, cathodes, and dry cells).
Cesaro Mac Import, a technological partner of renowned Italian companies in the recovery sector, drives innovation in battery recycling through its partnership with MTB. Together, they support the transition to a more sustainable and efficient energy future. This strategic collaboration ensures that proposed solutions are always state-of-the-art, enabling maximum recovery of critical raw materials and supporting the growing demand for electric vehicles in Europe and beyond.
