Fortum has made the investment decision to expand its lithium-ion battery recycling capacity by building a new hydrometallurgical plant in Harjavalta, Finland. The investment, marked at ca. EUR 24 million, will be a major step in increasing Fortum’s hydrometallurgical recycling capacity and enabling the production of sustainable battery chemicals. The new facility will be able to efficiently recover scarce metals from old electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries while also recycling various waste fractions derived throughout the battery supply chain. Lithium-ion batteries play a key role in enabling the transition to clean energy and the growth of e-mobility. With the rapid electrification of transportation and the move towards renewable energy sources, the demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to grow more than ten-fold by 2030, significantly increasing the need for critical metals used in the production of lithium-ion batteries. Fortum’s new Harjavalta facility will help to meet the rising demand for recycled battery materials and enable the sustainable recovery of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese, which are all essential in the manufacturing of new electric vehicle batteries. Fortum uses a combination of mechanical and low-CO2 hydrometallurgical technologies to recycle the batteries as sustainably as possible and with the lowest carbon footprint. The lithium-ion batteries are first disassembled and treated during a mechanical process at Fortum’s plant in Ikaalinen. The battery’s black mass, containing critical metals, is collected and then taken to Harjavalta for hydrometallurgical processing. Fortum is currently operating an industrial-scale hydrometallurgical pilot plant in Harjavalta. The new facility to be built, which is expected to be operating in 2023, will enable a significant increase in Fortum’s processing and recycling capacity. The new plant will enable Fortum to recycle the major part of the EV batteries reaching their end-of-life in Europe.