2024 - 2025 Exhibitions
Green news: BASF/WHW Recycling to process cathode, anode waste from EV batteries; Thailand gives go ahead to Braskem-SCGC US$500 mn bioethylene project
German chemical firm BASF, a global player in battery materials and recycling, and WHW Recycling have entered an agreement on the processing of cathode and anode waste to make battery cell production in Europe more sustainable.
WHW Recycling, a joint venture between Walch Holding and Štefan Hanigovský, owner of the Slovakian waste management company Fecupral, is a specialist in the recycling of electrode foils. Through the processing of cathode and anode foil waste from battery cell production for electric vehicles, valuable raw materials can be recovered and fed into various value chains. With the separation of materials, WHW Recycling complements BASF’s processes of collecting production waste and feeding the recovered raw materials into various value chains for further processing, thus expanding BASF’s recycling service offering for its customers.
From the end of the year, cathode and anode foil waste from battery cell production will be processed and separated into its components in WHW Recycling’s two new separation plants in Baudenbach, Germany. Most of the recyclable materials can be recovered up to a highly pure form due to an innovative process patented exclusively by WHW Recycling.
Cathode foils consist of a thin aluminium foil coated with cathode active material. The aluminium material used in the cathode foils can be separated highly efficiently from the cathode active material in the cathode separation plant and reused as a metal fraction.
After separation, BASF will refine the resulting impure cathode active material and the resulting battery grade minerals can be re-used as a raw materials for cathode active material production. Copper processed in the anode foil as a carrier material and graphite can be used as recovered raw materials after processing in the anode separation plant.
In other news, the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) has approved the investment promotion applications of eight large projects worth a combined US$1.54 billion, including a bio-ethylene plant project by the local joint venture of Brazilian chemical firm Braskem. The joint venture firm Braskem Siam Co, a joint venture between Braskem and Thailand's SCG Chemicals PCL, received approval for a US$521 million investment to build a plant to produce up to 200,000 tonnes/year of bio-ethylene (or green-ethylene) from bio-ethanol from agricultural products such as sugarcane, cassava, and corn.
The plant will be located in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Rayong province. Bio-ethylene is used to make a variety of environmentally friendly products, from packaging for food and beverage to personal and home care products, toys, houseware, and plastic bags.
The meeting, which was chaired by Pichai Chunhavajira, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Chairman of the BOI, also approved the introduction of a new investment promotion category covering service centres for the repair, repack, and reuse of used electric vehicle (EV) batteries and energy storage systems, that further complements the BOI's comprehensive EV supply chain policy and incentives. Another new category was approved to support the data hosting business, to match the rising demand for this type of activity and complement the investment incentives already offered to support the development of the digital industry. The Board also approved a new promotion package for Quarantine Facilities for Animals for export to help improve quarantine and certification services for international trade of livestock.
"The applications approved are large investment project by both foreign and local investors in key target industries of importance to the Thai government and the future development of the economy, such as projects helping to protect the environment and supporting the country's digital transformation," said Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Secretary General of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), after the board meeting.
The Board also approved new incentives for automotive parts makers investing to upgrade their technological level and improve their productivity, and/or invest to transition their operations to serve new industries, such as the medical equipment or aviation sectors.
- The Board approved two large data centre projects, aiming to support the economy's digital transformation, and the fast-increasing demand for cloud computing, IoT and AI.
- A multinational company headquartered in the US received approval for a US$194 million investment in a data centre in Samut Prakan province.
- True Internet Data Center Co., Ltd. received approval for a US$90 million investment to expand one of the company's four existing data centres, which is located at the True IDC East Bangna Campus, also in Samut Prakan province.
- National Power Plant 12 Co., Ltd. received approval for a US$254 million investment to build a plant to produce electricity and steam from biomass fuels, such as black rubber oil, a by-product of the paper pulp production process. The plant, which will have a production capacity of 130 megawatts of power and 576 tonnes/hour of steam, will be located in the 304 Industrial Park in Prachinburi province.
- The SCG Group received approval for a US$162 million investment in a cogeneration power plant with a production capacity of 130 megawatts of power and of 160 tonnes/hour of steam. The plant will be located in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Rayong province, and will serve electricity to factories in the industrial estate.
- Super Earth Energy 8 Co received approval for a US$77 million investment to build a plant to produce electricity from waste. The plant, which will have a 20 megawatts capacity, will be located in Nonthaburi province.
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