The National Business JUL 2023 / Read original article
The Scandinavian country, where electricity is almost exclusively generated by renewable energy, is the uncontested world champion of zero-emission electric cars
Wearing a white lab coat and with a gas mask within reach, Ole Jorgen Gronvold measures the humidity of an intriguing dark powder touted as the planet’s next black gold. But this black gold – a term that usually refers to oil – is actually good for the Earth.
In south-east Norway is Europe’s biggest plant for recycling used or defective electric car batteries, turning them into a powder, or “black mass”, made up of nickel, manganese, cobalt, lithium and graphite.
These so-called critical minerals – essential components in many clean energy technologies – will be reused to make new batteries, key cogs in the transition to a decarbonised economy.
“The higher the quality of the components, the easier it is to use them for recycling,” said Mr Gronvold, a laboratory technician at Hydrovolt, a joint venture between Norwegian aluminium company Norsk Hydro and Swedish electric battery maker Northvolt.
The Hydrovolt plant opened last year in the port city of Fredrikstad.
