Li-Cycle Opened New $175 Million Battery Recycling Facility

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Mississauga, Ontario-headquartered Li-Cycle Corp. announced opening of its Spoke 2 lithium-ion battery recycling plant at Eastman Business Park in Rochester, New York. The battery recycling hub was built at an investment of over $175 million. It must be noted that the company’s first ‘Spoke’ operation is located in Monroe County.

According to company press release, Spoke 2 will produce an intermediate mixed battery material product, known as black mass, from the used li-ion batteries. The facility has the capacity to process up to 5,000 tons of spent lithium-ion batteries per year, thus making the total combined recycling capacity to 10,000 tons per year.

The batteries are initially shipped to an initial ‘spoke’ location, where they are mechanically processed to reduce their size. These semi-processed materials are then sent to a ‘hub’ location where they undergo a hydrometallurgical process, instead of traditional smelting process. The recycling process does not result in creation of waste as byproduct, resulting in minimal greenhouse emissions.

The patented technologies are capable of recovering at least 95% of all materials found in lithium-ion batteries, Li-Cycle Corp. claimed.