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Battery Resourcers, a startup originally from Massachusetts, with headquarters in Novi, Michigan, plans to open a commercial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Covington, Georgia, close to both car manufacturers and SK On's battery plants.
The 154,000-square-foot (14,300 sqm) facility will host a plant with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year with both pre-processing and hydrometallurgical material recovery which will produce battery grade lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Battery Resourcers is investing $43m in the facility which will bring at least 150 jobs to the community. The company raised $70m in 2021. According to the company the opening of the Covington facility marks the first phase of Battery Resourcers’ strategic expansion. Plans are already in motion to open an additional facility for precursor and cathode-active material production in 2023 using the company’s patented Hydro-to Cathode™ technology. In the same time this marks a technical shift for the company. Battery Resourcers claim to fame has been its cathode-cathode process in which the cathode materials are kept in its current form and finally precipitated as an hydroxide after the ratios of materials have been adjusted which would mean a precursor would be produced directly through the recycling process. The current approach instead involves solvent extraction in similar fashion like Asian hydrometallurgical recycling processes.
Battery Resourcers' long-term plans include opening additional facilities in North America, Europe and Asia to process up to 150,000 metric tons of lithium-ion material globally per year. Currently the company is searching for staff in the UK.
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