BASF and Stena in black mass agreement

BASF and Swedish firm have entered into a black mass purchase agreement. This is described as part of a broader collaboration, with the goal of setting up a battery recycling value chain for the European electric vehicle (EV) battery market.

The focus will be on developing improved production processes for black mass, the product of mechanical treatment of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and production scrap. Black mass can be further treated to recover valuable metals, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese, to produce new cathode active materials (CAMs). These steps will be carried out at Stena’s site in Halmstad and BASF’s prototype metal refinery in Schwarzheide, respectively.

In November, BASF and SK On, a major manufacturer of electric vehicle battery cells, formed an agreement to evaluate collaboration opportunities in the global lithium-ion battery market focused on North America and Asia-Pacific. The initial focus will be on the production of CAMs, with other value chain opportunities, including battery recycling, to be evaluated later.