LONDON, UK: Primobius GmbH, the incorporated joint venture owned 50:50 by Neometals and SMS group GmbH (SMS), has executed a conditional, binding agreement with LICULAR GmbH.

LICULAR is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz AG founded specifically for the purpose of running a specialist consortia-based research programme with Mercedes-Benz to develop a holistic and sustainable recycling approach for lithium-ion batteries (LIB’s).

The formal cooperation follows an earlier press release by Mercedes-Benz of March regarding its global strategy for recycling automotive battery systems and Primobius’ role to support those objectives.

The cooperation will commence and become legally binding upon the receipt of an agreed form purchase order from LICULAR to Primobius for the supply and installation of the equipment for the construction, commissioning and operation of a LICULAR Recycling Plant for battery recycling and waste disposal, expected to be located at Mercedes-Benz’s Kuppenheim Operations in Southern Germany.

The Recycling Plant has a nominal design capacity of 10 tonnes per day (2,500 tonnes per annum) and will be built in two stages. Primobius will provide a royalty-free technology licence for the Recycling Plant’s operation, know-how and plant support to LICULAR.

The Mercedes-Benz (through LICULAR) technology partnership is a strong validation of the Primobius technology, its flexible business models and demonstrates the Company’s willingness to tailor commercial agreements to suit the recycling needs of EV car makers, LiB cell-makers and environmental service providers.

With SMS support, Primobius is advancing the engineering and design packages for LICULAR to enable the award of a purchase order for equipment supply and installation of the Recycling Plant as a next step.

Chris Reed says: “We are delighted to formalise our long-term cooperation agreement with Mercedes-Benz. The R&D collaboration is as important to us as successfully supplying the equipment. We are excited to work together to develop a more holistic recycling solution covering logistics, handling, compliance and sustainability. We are grateful for the opportunity and accept the challenge to futureproof our processing technology.”