BASF SE opened Europe’s first common center for battery material production and battery recycling in Schwarzheide, Brandenburg, in June 2023.

Battery materials are at the core of lithium-ion batteries: They play a significant role in the battery’s performance and are therefore also a major contributor to the transformation of mobility.

BASF’s production plant for high-performance cathode materials and the battery recycling plant for the production of black mass make significant contributions to the successful circular economy within the battery value chain – from the collection of used batteries to the recovery of mineral resources and their use in the production of new battery materials.

BASF betreibt in Schwarzheide nicht nur die erste Produktionsstätte für hochleistungsfähige Kathodenmaterialien in Deutschland, sondern auch die erste vollautomatische Großproduktionsanlage für Kathodenmaterialien in Europa:

Up to 1.5 gigawatt hours of battery modules are to be produced annually on the site in Ludwigsfelde, which spans 36,000 square meters. The battery solutions are mainly intended for mobility applications. In the final phase, approx. 250 employees will manufacture up to 6 gigawatt hours of battery modules.

In the first phase, Microvast is planning a production line stretching a good 100 meters, on which around 500,000 battery modules can be produced annually. The plant is to be one of the world’s first modular production lines for battery modules.

The clean tech company Rock Tech Lithium is building Europe’s first lithium converter in Brandenburg. Rock Tech uses it to produce high-quality lithium hydroxide for batteries that are needed in the automotive industry.

The Canadian company, which is based in Guben, Brandenburg, is at the beginning of the battery production value chain.

Lithium is the lightest of all metals and offers the highest energy density relative to its weight. It is an essential main component of high-performance batteries and an abundant raw material, but it is rarely found in high concentrations.

Rock Tech extracts lithium in the form of the mineral spodumene at Georgia Lake in Canada and, from 2025, will process the material into lithium hydroxide in Guben.

Rock Tech thus supplies an important component for the new value chain, enabling the efficient and self-sufficient production of batteries for e-mobility.

Botree Cycling’s battery recycling plant is to be commissioned in the Guben Southern industrial zone. The company is thus doing pioneering work in Europe, as it is the company’s first location on the continent. Botree Cycling’s planned investment volume at the Guben investment site is expected to be up to 100 million euros.