Major battery recycling company Li-Cycle announced Tuesday that it officially opened its new German plant, among the biggest in Europe. In fact, the plant can recycle full electric vehicle battery packs.
The Magdeburg Spoke
Li-Cycle refers to its first-ever European EV battery recycling center as a “Spoke.” As mentioned, it is located in Germany, specifically in Magdeburg.
The North American battery recycler aims to operate two processing lines at the 20,000-square-meter site.
It has already launched the operations at the first main line, which can efficiently process full EV battery packs. Meanwhile, the company aims to open the second main line by the end of 2023.
Li-Cycle claims that each of the two processing lines has an annual processing capacity of up to 10,000 tonnes of Li-ion battery material.
The company further aims to generate another 10,000 tonnes of supplementary capacity at the plant.
In that sense, the Magdeburg Spoke can reach an annual output of 30,000 tonnes of Li-ion battery material. If everything goes according to plan, the Li-Cycle facility will be one of the biggest of its kind in the region. Moreover, it would also be the largest spoke in the company’s current portfolio.
The company expects the new German plant to support its push to imitate its enormous hub-and-spoke network in North America. For context, its collection and processing plants convert batteries into black mass (shredded battery elements). After that, it will be sent to a central recycling plant to isolate the battery materials into lithium, nickel, and other metals.
“We are thrilled to announce that Li-Cycle has started operations in Europe with the opening of our largest Spoke to date. This is a great milestone for Li-Cycle as we continue to strengthen our position as a leading global battery recycling and resource recovery company. The new Spoke facility in Germany will serve as an anchor point for Li-Cycle’s expansion in Europe and support our growing customer base, including global battery manufacturers and automakers, in the largest battery market on the continent. We are excited to continue expanding our footprint around the world to build local and sustainable closed-loop battery supply chains to support the clean energy transition.”
Tim Johnston, Li-Cycle’s Co-founder and Executive Chair
See Also:
- US to lend Li-Cycle $375 million for a recycling facility in New York
- VinES and Li-Cycle announced a global battery recycling partnership launch
- Li-Cycle opens li-ion battery recycling plant in Alabama
- New York to invest $29 million in electrification initiatives
- Global passenger EV battery market grew 70% to 488.3 GWh in 2022
Unfortunately, Li-Cycle omitted to reveal the investment amount for the German battery recycling plant. However, Reuters noted that it has a $35 million-$45 million budget for plant development this year.
The company’s move to launch a European operation will undoubtedly support its efforts to advance as one of the region’s top lithium producers.
