Fortum Battery Recycling, a Finnish company, has signed a preliminary agreement and a letter of intent with the Japanese trading group Marubeni to jointly establish a sustainable recycling chain for lithium-ion batteries, with a focus on graphite recycling.
Under the agreement, Marubeni will assist Fortum by supplying in-process waste materials and process chemicals. The partnership aims to develop graphite and lithium recycling technologies to create a recycling value chain that aligns with market demand. Both companies also plan to explore additional business opportunities and promote sustainable growth in the clean energy sector.
Tero Holländer, Head of the Battery Business Area at Fortum Battery Recycling, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, “We are very excited to be cooperating with Marubeni to explore potential business opportunities within graphite recycling. An average electric vehicle (EV) car battery contains about 52kg of graphite, and it is the main raw material of an EV battery. At the same time, 40% of raw natural graphite is imported from China and technologies for graphite recycling do not exist on a commercial scale yet. Fortum Battery Recycling aims to change this, as we are working on our own graphite recycling technology.”
Fortum specializes in producing recycled graphite from electric car battery waste, which is suitable for various industrial applications and is being further developed for electric car battery anodes. Through this collaboration, Fortum and Marubeni aim to play a pivotal role in the European market for recycled lithium-ion battery materials and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.
This initiative follows Fortum’s recent partnership with Hydrovolt, a joint venture between the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt and the Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro. The collaboration with Hydrovolt focuses on battery recycling, with the goal of establishing Northern Europe as a model region for battery recycling.
