Thanks to Revolt, the first battery cell was created 100% from recycled materials

Swedish company Northvolt announced last Friday that it would manufacture the first battery cell using “100% recycled nickel, manganese and cobalt”. All of this is part of the Revolt recycling program, which, according to the company, was the first effort of its kind to create a battery cell from 100% recycled materials.

The first battery cell from recycled materials, Northvolt’s Revolt recycling in action

This company, based in Stockholm, has had investments from Goldman Sachs or Volkswagen in the past, which is not surprising given the intensive electrification of the entire offer of this German car manufacturer. Its Revolt recycling and production program with raw materials obtained from it has just reached an important stage, which, however, is only the beginning of Northvolt’s path to saving used batteries.

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Northvolt is planning to start the construction of the Revolt Ett plant in the first quarter of 2022 and start its operations in 2023. The latter will use materials from end-of-life BEV batteries, which will be processed at the Revolt facility. This one will process 125,000 tons of used batteries annually, providing raw materials for the production of new, fully operational batteries. Lithium, cobalt, manganese and nickel will come into play, supplying the factory itself in the process.

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The company has proven that it is able to do this (at least on a small scale) as it has managed to produce a nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode for a cell using metals ‘recovered through recycling of battery waste’. Tests showed that its performance was on par with cells made of freshly mined metals.