Stena sharpens its edge as the battery race accelerates

Stena Recycling is an established name in the metals recycling industry. After almost EUR 50 million in investments, the company has now broadened its role to become a serious battery recycler, too. A visit to its flagship operations reveals how the strategy is taking shape on the ground.

Stena operates five battery sorting and pre-treatment hubs in Europe, including facilities in Poland and Sweden. The latter is at Halmstad, one of Europe’s biggest recycling plants. It processes around 300 000 tonnes of metals per annum, predominantly steel, copper and aluminium as well as batteries, e-scrap and plastics.

‘Electrification within the automotive industry will be worth around EUR 25 billion by 2030,’ estimates Marcus Martinsson, product area manager for batteries at Stena Recycling Group. The trend underscores the recycler’s ambition to excel in the treatment of end-of-life electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

‘Our previous focus was entirely on recycling but demand is now increasing for smart ways to reuse automotive batteries that still have remaining capacity and can be used in other products,’ Martinsson adds.

Collaborative growth

That’s why Stena has joined a new national collaboration with Rebaba, OKQ8 Group, Smartports and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. Their objective? To launch an industry-wide initiative to scale up a circular, responsible and traceable battery value chain. ‘This ranges from testing EV batteries to second-life deployment in energy storage systems, and finally to recycling at end of life,’ the manager explains.

The project aims to accelerate Sweden’s transition toward a circular and resilient energy system by connecting industrial innovation, recycling expertise, research and value chain responsibility. It will also deliver practical benefits for EV charging site operators by enabling them to reduce energy costs and avoid costly grid upgrades.

It has been backed by Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova, with a total budget of EUR 2.4 million.

‘Never miss chemistries’

‘In the Halmstad area, we employ a team of 300 people working across two plants,’ says Steve Bång, senior process & technology engineer at Stena. ‘This site was built about two years ago and is one of Stena’s newest and biggest facilities with excellent access to railway and roads.’

It has been equipped by URT Recycling with a sorting and shredding line for batteries. E-mobility batteries represent a fast-growing segment. ‘It’s important to note that we treat batteries per chemistry group and we never mix chemistries,’ Bång tells Recycling International during a recent plant tour.

He points out that an innovative vacuum system takes out the electrolyte while scrubbers get rid of any particles by releasing clean air. This yields fractions of 25mm dry material.

Hope for black mass

Stena also recovers black mass from cathodes. Black mass is rubbed off by a mill then separated. Cobalt, lithium, nickel and manganese are sorted from ferrous, aluminium and plastics with 98% purity. Bång says the yield is very clean: ‘We want to minimise losses, obviously.’

He reports the current system can handle four tonnes per hour ‘on a good day’. Stena receives both smaller and larger modules so the tonnage may differ. Workers come into the battery hub on two daily shifts, usually with four people working each shift, from Monday to Friday. Up to 60% of batteries treated (by volume) is black mass.

Today, most of the material is exported. ‘South Korea is especially showing a lot of interest in battery grade material that can go right back into production. Demand lags behind in Europe. Who knows, this may change in a couple of years, depending on new legislation and investments in processing capacity.’

Expert eyes

To treat fractions under 2mm, Stena relies on special sensor-based sorting equipment. ‘Advanced technology is available and we have invested heavily in such solutions but recovering 100% of materials is almost impossible,’ Bång asserts. ‘Having the best machines is not enough. You need skilled people, too. I’m glad to say we have a great and dedicated team.

‘Our people are engaged and highly trained and intuitive; they scan constantly with their eyes.’ In doing so, they greatly complement the X-ray, XRT XRF sensor-based sorters. These are also used to process printed circuit boards, sorting them typically by colour, mostly green, blue and red.