German chemical giant BASF recently announced that the company plans to cooperate with French companies Erame and Suez in the electric vehicle waste battery recycling business, which aims to compete for the battery recycling market and occupy a favorable position. In a statement, BASF said, "The company has received funding from the European Commission for a total of 4.7 million euros (about 36.82 million yuan) to promote the formation of a closed loop for innovative lithium battery recycling operations and to promote the production of lithium batteries for electric vehicles in Europe. . "
It is understood that the automobile lithium-ion battery recycling project created by the above three companies is called "ReLieVe". The three companies will start vigorously developing lithium battery recycling projects in January 2020. The project brings together the expertise of the three companies in the field of recycling processes. Suez is responsible for collecting and dismantling used batteries, Ehman is responsible for recycling battery components, and BASF is responsible for producing lithium battery anode materials.
Suez's chief operating officer, Jean-Marc Boursier, predicts that "by 2027, battery recycling in Europe will be about 50,000 tons. By 2035, this value may double by 10 times." Laurent Joncourt, chairman of the R & D division of Ehmann It is also said that the ReLieVe project actively responded to the European Commission's call to accelerate the expansion of the rapidly growing lithium-ion battery market.
As the world's top chemical giant, BASF has been committed to the development and production of higher energy density and more reliable battery anode materials. Previously, BASF also established a cooperative relationship with Sinopec to jointly explore opportunities for developing innovative battery materials in China. Regarding BASF ’s initiative to enter the European battery recycling market with two other companies, Daniel Schönfelder, BASF ’s vice president of European materials management for battery materials, said that BASF believes that the recycling process will play an increasingly important role in the promotion of electric vehicles. Together, the partners will be able to jointly foster an innovative, sustainable and competitive European battery market value chain.