Jan 15, 2025, Rotterdam – SK tes, a leading provider of sustainable battery recycling services, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with the BMW Group. This partnership establishes a pan-European recycling program that recovers critical raw materials including cobalt, nickel, and lithium from used batteries. By reintegrating these materials into the forward manufacturing supply chain, SK tes and the BMW Group are creating a closed-loop model that enhances resource efficiency and minimizes waste.
By developing a closed-loop recycling model, the partnership aligns with both companies’ visions for a circular economy. SK tes' expertise in extracting valuable materials from high-voltage batteries plays a crucial role in this initiative, ensuring that these materials are reintroduced into the value chain for the manufacture of new batteries. The collaboration also integrates the BMW Group directly in the recycling process by systemically including valuable feedback provided into to its development function.
The innovative recycling process at SK tes sees high-voltage batteries safely and securely discharged, disassembled and mechanically shredded before going through an enhanced separation process to extract a concentrated material called black mass. Commodity materials such as nickel, lithium, and cobalt are then extracted through a hydrometallurgy process. This secondary raw material is used in the electric vehicle battery supply chain to produce new batteries, including the GEN 6 drive train providing a closed loop solution for BMW Group.
“SK tes believes that circularity is vital for developing resource efficient electric vehicles and sustainable technologies." States Chief Commercial Officer, Eric Ingebretsen, “The partnership with BMW Group underscores our shared mission to keep materials in circulation and ensure resources are maximised to their full potential.”
Joao Avelar, Director of Battery Operations, added: “Through this collaboration we’re not only providing recycling solutions, we’re working in partnership to provide valuable design insights as well as supplying secondary materials into the value chain, closing the loop, and making a lasting impact.”
Read the news from BMW Group here: BMW Group scores circular economy win with high-voltage batteries
