At a recent ATF Professional webinar, Roger Morton, MD for Technology and Innovation at EMR highlighted how RECOVAS project is to create a new circular end-of-life supply chain for the EV industry.
A ground-breaking project to create a new circular end-of-life supply chain for the electric vehicle industry is being led by European Metal Recycling (EMR), a world-leading metal recycler. The project has won grant support from the UK Government’s Advanced Propulsion Centre.
RECOVAS, highlighted by Roger Morton in ATF Pro’s latest webinar, is a partnership between EMR, three major vehicle manufacturers; Bentley Motors, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, the University of Warwick, the Health and Safety Executive, the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, Autocraft Solutions Group and Connected Energy, which repurpose electric car batteries and uRecycle, which will develop the UK’s first commercial-scale recycling facility for automotive battery packs.
Under current EU law and post Brexit, manufacturers retain responsibility for the safe disposal of electric car batteries. There are already 164,100 pure electric vehicles on Britain’s roads, with that number rising to 373,600[1] when plug-in hybrids are included. This project aims to provide a standardised and reliable route for recycling and repurposing lithium-ion car batteries at a scale that can cope with the expected sales of electric vehicles in the UK.
Remanufacturing is the process of repairing and re-engineering existing batteries so they could potentially be used in new cars. Reuse involves giving batteries a second life in stationary storage to help balance the use of the electricity grid during peak use and optimise the use of renewable energy and other applications. The new supply chain will help all partners to triage batteries when they arrive at approved end-of-life vehicle treatment facilities across the UK for either remanufacturing, reuse or – where this is not possible – recycling.
The project, which is set to change the future of the vehicle recycling industry, will also see EMR and partners publish ‘safe ways of working guides’ for electric vehicles and batteries with input from the HSE and develop partnerships and safe working methods to collect damaged electric vehicles. The end result will allow EMR and other recyclers to accept hybrid and fully electric vehicles for depollution and recycling, along with supplying these for parts pulling.
Roger Morton, Managing Director for Technology and Innovation at EMR, said:
“Our aim is to create a circular supply chain for batteries and, in the process, reduce the cost for end-of-life disposal for the vehicle manufacturer or last owner of the car to zero. By working in partnership with the RECOVAS consortium, electric vehicle manufacturers will develop simple design changes that greatly improve the potential to remanufacture, reuse or recycle their batteries at end of life. This will help to transform the economics of the electric vehicle market.”
Developing and managing the infrastructure to process end-of-life electric vehicles and their batteries will generate new economic activity for the UK and create new green jobs in the UK within the consortium members and their supply chain.
As part of the project, leading automotive manufacturers have agreed to share more information about the design and construction of their batteries, allowing the consortium to more effectively and efficiently repurpose or recycle them.
Morton added:
“We have a very strong electric vehicle industry in the UK and it is changing fast. RECOVAS is an essential part of the sustainable roll-out of electric vehicles.”
The project, which is supported by the UK Government as part of a £49m investment in technologies that will help the automotive industry to ’go green‘, will start in February 2021 and will run for three years.
To find out more from EMR, visit uk.emrgroup.com
[1]www.nextgreencar.com/electric-cars/statistics
To see Roger Morton’s presentation entitled ‘EVs Are Coming, Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace’ at an ATF Professional Webinar on 26th January, please click here and scroll down to ‘Recordings and Presentations’
