Valmet Automotive and Fortum are cooperating on recycling of all non-conforming battery materials from Valmet’s Finland battery plants in Salo and Uusikaupunki.
The battery recycling agreement signed with Fortum contributes to the development of a value chain based on circular economy and sustainable development, for which both Fortum and Valmet Automotive received funding this year from EU battery industry innovation project, IPCEI.
Fortum provides recycling and waste management services to complement Valmet Automotive’s battery production. Fortum can recycle up to 95 % of critical metals in lithium-ion battery’s black mass with a low-CO2 process, allowing recovery of lithium, cobalt, manganese and nickel for reuse.
“The collaboration enables us to recover raw materials from the battery production process in the most sustainable way, allowing for critical metals to be fed back into Finland’s battery value chain to create new EV batteries, said Fortum head of Business Line Batteries, Tero Holländer.
Scrapped non-conforming materials are collected at Valmet Automotive plants and transported by Fortum for recycling.
“We consider it as part of our corporate responsibility and an essential part of our commitment to sustainable production, that we not only produce the batteries in a CO2 neutral way, but we also take care of best possible solutions for recycling the batteries,” added Valmet Automotive CEO, Olaf Bongwald.
Besides battery material recycling in Finland, Valmet and Fortum’s collaboration has expanded to the Uusikaupunki, Finland, car plant in waste management of hazardous materials.
Both companies are now exploring possibilities to extend cooperation to Valmet’s locations in Germany, in order to be closer to players in the EV sector.
https://www.valmet-automotive.com/media/news/valmet-automotive-and-fortum-cooperate-in-sustainable-recycling-of-battery-materials/