BLC Opens Battery Recycling Location in Magdeburg

BLC – The Battery Lifecycle Company GmbH (BLC) opens a new location in Magdeburg, which offers the world’s first fully automated battery deep discharge facility. There, BLC can prepare batteries for safe and resource-optimized recycling through disassembly and discharge, and in the long term also offer repairs for the costly batteries used in electric vehicles.

(Magdeburg) BLC is a joint venture of the sister companies Rhenus Automotive and TSR Automotive GmbH, accompanying the lifecycle of a vehicle battery with a focus on repair, reuse, and recycling, providing automotive manufacturers with solutions for the reuse of batteries from electric vehicles. Previously operating from the location in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, BLC is now opening its next site in Magdeburg. At the new location in the Magdeburg port, up to 15,000 tons of batteries can be processed, about six times as much as in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. This makes BLC one of the largest facilities in Europe and marks an important step in the company’s capacity expansion.

Unique Selling Point: Automation

Instead of constructing a new building, BLC has renovated an existing property and adapted it to the specific needs of battery recycling. The batteries will be fully automated deep discharged in Magdeburg and are expected to be robotically disassembled in the future. “An electric car battery weighs up to 700 kilograms and has around 180 screws. Disassembling it involves considerable effort. If employees have to handle each screw manually, it affects their health, motivation, and process efficiency. We want to prevent that,” says Florian Karlstedt, Co-Managing Director of BLC. While robots loosen the screws of the batteries, employees in the factory can focus on their respective areas of expertise, such as quality control, cable connections, or data analysis. “This high level of automation is not yet common in the industry, as the processes are very complex and labor-intensive,” Florian Karlstedt adds.

Leveraging Expertise in Waste and Resource Handling

BLC plans to process batteries for resource-saving recycling in Magdeburg in the future. The provision of tested modules for 2nd-life solutions, which are installed in stationary large-scale storage systems (BESS), is already an integral part of daily operations. “This allows us to reach a new level of expansion that positions the company as an innovation leader in the industry and is essential for the corresponding automation,” adds Lukas Brandl, also Co-Managing Director at BLC.

Due to the close ties to Rhenus Automotive and TSR Automotive, BLC can draw on expertise in logistics as well as in waste and resource handling, battery handling, and infrastructure according to automotive standards.

30 to 40 New Jobs

BLC will create around 30 to 40 jobs in the region through the new opening, making an important contribution to strengthening the local economy. The new location is not only conveniently located at the Magdeburg motorway interchange but also very central in Eastern Germany. Customers from Wolfsburg, Berlin, Dresden, and Leipzig are in close proximity and can be reached quickly. “We want to be where our customers are to create the most efficient logistics possible,” explains Lukas Brandl.

Photo: © BLC