Bosch plant in late Europe
Bosch announced the project for the construction of the first fully automated plant for the disposal of electric car batteries in Europe. A grain of sand, however, compared to a problem that risks seeing the Old Continent buried by a mountain of accumulators.
Erion Energythe consortium dedicated to waste batteries and accumulators, estimates that only in Italy if in 2030 we had to recycle all batteries of the electric car fleet placed on the market until 2020 (since the average life of a battery is 10-15 years), we should equip ourselves for the collection and treatment of approximately 28 thousand tons of wasteequal to the weight of two Towers of Pisa.
But forecasts tell us that in the coming years the world demand for accumulators will grow 14 times and it is expected that by 2030 a share of 17% could come from Europe. Hence the vastness and complexity of the problem
Europe: investments only on paper. Real money in the US
L’European Unionalongside the ban on the sale of diesel and petrol cars from 2035, has launched a support plan for the transition to electric which envisages various fronts. As for the batteries, the‘European battery innovation foretold a maxi allocation of 2.9 billion euros for the development of a research and innovation programme across the entire battery value chain and also for the implementation di 15 gigafactory which by 2025 should be able to supply power cells for 6 million electric vehicles.
A project that however remains largely on paper and is struggling to take off for various reasons. Meanwhile, some joint ventures with self-styled Chinese entrepreneurs and partners have failed even before leaving. Then there are the obstacles linked to the political changes in the individual countries, but above all because the maxi US plan of green incentives worth 800 billion dollars launched by the administration Biden sta convincing many European automakers to move investments to production sites in the United States.
What is happening in Italy today
LAs can be expected, Italy is not ready yet. Currently lithium batteries mostly end up in Germany, which, however, still remains very far from countries such as China which has been investing in recovery circuits for years aimed at maximizing secondary raw materials. It should be remembered that lithium-ion batteries are very delicate to dispose of and recycle because they are rich in dangerous and polluting materials such as cobalt, nickel and manganese. Furthermore, they are made up of hundreds of “cells” and are subject to explosion if not dismantled with specific procedures.
Bosch’s project
Bosch estimate that by 2030 electric cars will account for approx 70% of all new cars registered in Europe. Starting from this premise, the group has developed special machinery, equipment and software. In particular, the subsidiary Bosch Rexroth will provide a Battery Lifecycle Company (a joint venture between Tsr recycling and Rhenus automotive), the first fully automated system in Europe that will take care of unloading and disassembling the battery modules.
Battery Lifecycle Company will build the first facility of its kind at its site in Magdeburg. Within this site, they will be test used batteries of different manufacturers that will then be fully downloaded e prepared for subsequent dismantling. The workpiece trolleys in the new factory will each transport up to 150 kilos of material at a speed of 18 meters per second.
Basically thanks to Bosch technology it will take less than 15 minutes to automatically discharge eight lithium-ion batteries from electric cars. In this way, it will be possible to speed up the recycling process. With the manual process in use today, it takes up to 24 hours to fully discharge a battery.