The Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt and the Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro announce the establishment of a joint venture to enable the recycling of battery materials and aluminum in the Norwegian electric vehicle market.


The joint venture called Hydro Volt is set to build a recycling center in Norway that will start operating in 2021. According to a media report, around 9 million euros are to be invested in the Frederikstad location, south of Oslo near the Swedish border. Northvolt does not state the amount of the investment in the notice of the joint venture.

Norsk Hydro has had a stake in Northvolt since 2019. According to their own statements, both companies want to improve the material flows and circular economy around battery materials. Synergies between the battery and aluminum industries are also to be exploited: Northvolt receives recycled lithium, manganese and cobalt, for example, while the aluminum components go to Norsk Hydro.

At the start, the recycling capacity should be 8,000 tons of batteries per year, with the capacity to be expanded "over time". With a battery weight of 500 kilograms per vehicle, the capacity would correspond to around 16,000 electric cars - a bit less for larger batteries, of course, a little more for smaller batteries.

"We are happy about the opportunities that result from this. Hydro Volt can process aluminum from used batteries as part of our entire metal value chain, contribute to the circular economy and at the same time reduce the climate footprint of the metal we deliver, ”said Arvid Moss, executive vice president of energy and corporate development at Hydro.

Northvolt itself repeats the goal that by 2030 half of the raw materials should come from recycled batteries. "The partnership with Hydro is an important part of the puzzle to ensure external material supply before our own batteries return to us," said Emma Nehrenheim, chief environmental officer, responsible for the Revolt Recycling business at Northvolt.

Northvolt announced the “Revolt” recycling project in December 2019 . At the time, a pilot plant at the Northvolt Labs site in Västerås was promised for 2020. In 2022, a recycling plant with a capacity of 25,000 tons is to be put into operation in Skellefteå, the location of the actual battery cell factory "Northvolt Ett". In the current release, Northvolt confirms the December schedule, so there does not appear to be any significant delay due to the Corona pandemic.

At the time, it was also said that Northvolt had developed methods for key cell recycling processes in the past two years - the tools in the pilot plant are to be developed in order to be able to implement these processes on a larger scale. These developments will then also be used at Hydro Volt in Frederikstad.


cleanthinking.de , northvolt.com