HYDRO BATTERIES’ TECHNOLOGY ACTIVITIES
Jonas Sottmann
Hydro Batteries, Drammensveien 264, 0283 Oslo (Norway)
Norsk Hydro is a global aluminium and energy company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway. The company’s purpose is to create a more viable society by developing natural resources into innovative and efficient products, e.g. low-carbon and recycled high-quality aluminium. In recent years Norsk Hydro has established new renewable energy, green hydrogen, and battery businesses.
Hydro Batteries aims to develop leading sustainable battery businesses in Europe, by active investments in the battery value chain. Since 2017, we made selective investments in assets that combine innovative sustainable solutions and high-value potential with the opportunity to learn and contribute as an active industrial owner. As such we support the industrialization of innovative solutions in the companies in which we are invested in. Today, our strategic focus is on sustainable battery material production and includes Anode Materials, Circular Solutions, and Lithium.
Hydro Batteries has invested in Vianode, a company that produces innovative anode graphite materials with 90% lower CO2 emissions than standard materials. Hydro is also an investor of the Dutch advanced materials company E-magy, which develops silicon anode materials for next-generation batteries that deliver up to 40% higher energy density compared to existing products.
Norsk Hydro and the battery cell manufacturer Northvolt have formed a joint venture to build Hydrovolt, Europe’s largest battery recycling plant. This plant can process 12,000 tons of battery packs annually and aims to recover up to 95% of the materials used in EV batteries, including plastics, copper, aluminium, and the black mass containing elements like nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium.
Recently, Hydro Batteries has invested in Lithium de France, a company pioneering the extraction of heat and lithium from geothermal brines in the Upper Rhine Valley (Alsace region) using direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology with a significantly lower CO2 footprint than current methods, addressing the increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries while ensuring a more sustainable production process.
Hydro Batteries’ technology team aims to improve competitiveness in our industrial positions, de-risk against technology disruptions and build starting points for new industrial positions. Technology deep dives, R&D projects and industrial partnerships in the battery value chain play a key role towards supporting our investment decisions and assets.
The presentation will give an overview of Hydro Batteries’ positioning in the battery value chain, introduce our assets, and highlight some of our recent technology activities.