Accurec Moves Beyond Battery Recycling to Recover Lithium in Germany

Accurec targets the next stage of battery recycling

German battery recycler Accurec is expanding its focus from dismantling used batteries to recovering strategic raw materials, including lithium. At its facility in Krefeld, the company receives discarded batteries ranging from electric-vehicle packs to batteries used in mobile phones, laptops and power tools, according to Handelsblatt.

The plant dismantles vehicle batteries and processes smaller batteries on a conveyor line. The initial recycling stages separate steel from cell casings as well as copper and aluminium from electrode foils. Another output is black mass, a powder containing lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and carbon.

This material is the commercial and technical focus of Accurec’s next step. Handelsblatt reports that most European recyclers currently stop after producing black mass and sell the intermediate product to Asia. Accurec intends to continue processing it, positioning the company not only as a battery recycler but also as a supplier of recovered raw materials.

More value could remain in Europe

Moving beyond black-mass production would retain a larger part of the recycling chain in Germany. Instead of exporting a concentrated mixture of valuable materials for further treatment, Accurec would seek to separate and recover lithium itself. Handelsblatt describes this capability as a distinguishing feature for the company in Europe.

The investment is relevant to several parts of the battery market. Battery producers need access to materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese, while recyclers need buyers for both separated metals and intermediate products. For European processors, domestic recovery could create an additional source of material from discarded batteries, although the source text does not specify planned output, investment value or a commissioning date.

The range of batteries handled in Krefeld also gives Accurec access to different material streams. High-voltage electric-vehicle batteries arrive alongside consumer and tool batteries, but their composition, format and processing requirements are not identical. A commercially successful recovery operation therefore depends on managing varied feedstock while producing materials that meet customers’ requirements.

Viability depends on several conditions

Accurec’s shift illustrates the gap between collecting and dismantling batteries and recovering individual materials at commercial scale. Producing black mass already concentrates the valuable components, but lithium recovery adds another processing stage. Handelsblatt notes that several conditions must be met for the project to work, without detailing them in the supplied report.

For market participants, the central question is whether European processing can compete with the established route of selling black mass to Asia. The outcome will affect the share of value captured by recyclers, the availability of secondary battery materials in Europe and the role of German processors in the battery supply chain. Accurec’s project puts that question into an industrial setting: piles of used batteries enter the Krefeld plant, while steel, copper, aluminium and material-rich black mass emerge from the first stages. The company now wants lithium recovery to become part of that domestic chain.