Fortum launches Finnish lithium processing plant

Energy company Fortum said on April 27 it had started commercial operation of its lithium hydrometallurgical battery material recycling facility in Finland.

Fortum claims the plant is the largest in Europe in terms of recycling capacity and the region’s first commercialscale facility for hydrometallurgical recycling. The plant can also recover 95% of the valuable and critical metals from battery black mass and reuse them to produce new lithium ion battery chemicals, Fortum claims.

At the time of going to press, the company had yet to respond to Battery International’s request for recycling capacity details or say what happens to residual black mass that cannot be