Li-Cycle's Commercial Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Plant Now Operational in Rochester, New York

ONTARIO, CANADA (December 2, 2020) – Li-Cycle Corp. (Li-Cycle), North America’s largest capacity lithium-ion battery recycling company, today announced its Spoke 2 facility at Eastman Business Park (EBP) in Rochester, New York is now fully operational. The company’s Spoke 2 will produce an intermediate mixed battery material product (known in the industry as ‘black mass’) from all types of spent lithium-ion batteries, in addition to the black mass currently being produced at Spoke 1 in Kingston, Ontario. The new Rochester facility has the capacity to process up to 5,000 tons of spent lithium-ion batteries per year, which brings Li-Cycle’s total recycling capacity to 10,000 tons/year through its two North American Spokes. 

Founded in Mississauga, Ontario, Li-Cycle provides a solution to the global end-of-life lithium-ion battery problem, while creating a secondary supply of critical battery materials through its innovative recycling technology. Li-Cycle’s Spoke & Hub Technologies minimize the overall environmental footprint of the end-to-end resource recovery process and substantially reduce the intensity of GHG emissions that would otherwise be produced from mining these finite resources. 

Historically, most lithium-ion battery recyclers have used a smelting process to recover these valuable battery materials, resulting in high emissions and the loss of critical metals. With Li-Cycle’s recycling services, these inefficiencies are eliminated without creating any waste as a byproduct. 

“This is a crucial step in scaling Li-Cycle’s technology and creating a strong foundation for the circular supply chain for lithium-ion batteries in a world where increased electrification is needed to combat climate change,” said Li-Cycle CEO Ajay Kochhar. “Our goal is to better manage end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in order to meet the increasing demand for critical battery materials by creating a local source for these materials in North America.” 

Li-Cycle has reinvented the recycling process by developing and validating patented technologies that enable recoveries of at least 95% of all materials found in lithium-ion batteries through an innovative, zero-waste process. This compares to the industry norm of less than 50% recovery. The company processes all types of lithium-ion batteries regardless of their previous application, chemistry, or state of charge. 

Both Spokes will supply black mass to Li-Cycle’s future Hub, which will be constructed at Eastman Business Park in Rochester by 2022. The Hub will process black mass in order to produce critical, battery-grade materials from recycled sources, as well as other recycled materials that can be returned to the economy. 

Li-Cycle recently closed a Series C equity funding round to fund this development and to drive expansion into international markets.