ELECTRIC VEHICLE BATTERIES: ORANO IN THE RUNNING
Orano is moving into electric mobility through an integrated project that includes two plants for the manufacture of cathode materials for electric vehicle batteries, in partnership with XTC New Energy, and a recycling plant*. The industrial site will be up and running in the Dunkirk area, northern France, starting at the end of 2026. The aim is to cover around 10% of European market needs for each of the three activities by 2030.
70% of electric vehicle batteries recycled by 2030** (see note **).
- Gigafactories Manufacture of electric vehicle batteries.
- New or recycled electric batteries.
- Collection and dismantling of used batteries.
- Orano recycling plant.
End-of-life batteries and production scrap from gigafactories will be processed in two stages. Pre-treatment consists in mechanically separating the various elements of the batteries and scrap to be recycled. Hydrometallurgy consists in extracting the materials of interest (lithium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, graphite) to produce new battery components. This recycling process can be reproduced ad infinitum.
The hydrometallurgy plant will recycle 20,000 metric tons of black mass per year.
- P-CAM plant Orano - XTC New Energy.
Manganese, cobalt, and nickel will be mixed in this plant through a succession of chemical and thermal operations. These mixtures, called precursors of cathode active materials (P-CAM), are in powder form. They are the intermediate materials needed to manufacture CAMs.
The 80,000 metric tons of CAMs produced per year on the site will enable manufacture of 64 GWh of batteries, or enough to equip 700,000 to 1 million electric vehicles.
- CAM plant XTC New Energy - Orano.
Active cathode materials will be produced in a dedicated factory using P-CAMs to which lithium is added. P-CAMs play a key role in the performance and lifetime of batteries. Their production quality is a fundamental challenge.
Manufacturing new battery components, which are then sent to Gigafactories.