Northvolt Revolt

Believe in resurrection

The world needs clean batteries. And a plan for what to do with them at end-of-life. Our solution: take old batteries and turn them into fresh raw materials for batteries of tomorrow. We do this through Revolt – our program for battery recycling.

What goes out. Comes back in.

Recycled

We recover almost all nickel, manganese and cobalt found in old batteries to battery-grade levels of purity.

Annual capacity

Europe's largest battery recycling plant is being built at Northvolt Ett.

Recycled material

We'll source half of the raw materials needed for cell production from recycling by 2030.

Recycling the Northvolt way

Recognizing that recycling would be fundamental to a sustainable battery industry, in December 2019 we launched Revolt – an in-house program for recycling.

Learn more about the process

Making without taking

Step 1

Discharging

Before anything else, we discharge batteries of all energy to make them safe to recycle. Where possible, energy will be recovered to power later steps in the recycling process.

Step 2

Dismantling

The next step in the recycling process involves removing modules from the packs that arrive to us. For this, we use robots to unscrew, cut, lift and perform any other operations required to reach the modules and cells. 

Step 3

Crushing & Sorting

This is our mechanical process step, and it begins with crushing and shredding the batteries. The material is then processed using a variety of techniques to separate fractions of metals and plastics. Electrolyte is also isolated and recovered. The remaining material is the most valuable – a fine powder we call black mass. 

Step 4

Hydromet

Black mass is a powdered mixture of metals which we must purify to recover materials that can be used in the production of fresh batteries. To do this, we use a hydrometallurgical ‘hydromet’ treatment.

#revolt

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