Ecobat to build pre-processing plant in Arizona

Ecobat, one of the largest lead-acid battery recyclers in the world will set up a pre-processing plant for lithium-ion batteries in Casa Grande, Arizona in the United States. The facility have the capacity to recycle 10,000 tonnes of scrap materials with ability to expand in the same facility

Ecobat operates today a pre-processing plant in Germany with a capacity of 3,000 tonnes, an operation which was acquired by Promesa. The company also have sorting and disassembly operations in the UK and Germany.

The Casa Grande facility will be Ecobat's first facility for lithium-ion battery recycling, something the company has been looking into for several years. In the facility the batteries will be diagnosed and, if possible repurposed. Batteries deemed for recyclign will be shredded and sorted in a mechanical process with black mass as the end product.

Arizona has together with Nevada become hotspots for recyclers with severa establishments the latest years. In Arizona Li-Cycle is operating a 10,000 tpa pre-processing plant while Cirba Solutions is setting up a combined pre-processing and material recovery operation complementing their existing sorting facility in the same state. The location is considered favourable due its proximity to California which is the largest EV market in the US but with tougher environmental protection laws than Arizona.