Revolt to close down recycling operation

Revolt, a subsidiary of Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt, will shut down its operations and lay off all 90 employees in May. The company, entering administration in February alongside other Northvolt units, had been maintaining limited operations in an effort to sell the plant as a going concern. According to the administrator, several potential buyers expressed interest, but no firm offers were made. While a sale may still occur, it will not involve the business continuing its current operations.

Revolt’s plant in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, had the capacity to process 8,500 tonnes of cell-equivalent waste annually and featured both a hydrometallurgical process as well as a pre-processing unit for production scrap. However, the facility was specifically designed to support Northvolt’s precursor and cathode production. Its main outputs were mixed sulphate solution and lithium hydroxide. Without a local consumer for these materials, transportation would require crystallization to be economical—an investment that would be considerable.

Despite Skellefteå’s relative proximity to potential downstream sites—being just six hours from Kokkola (where Umicore and Jervois produce cobalt products and precursors) and nine hours from Harjavalta (home to BASF’s still unopened and partially permitted precursor plant)—no buyer has emerged. Given that multiple parties have reportedly reviewed the facility and its data without proceeding to acquisition, it appears that the current business model, location and processing flow sheet do not justify the required investment.

Moreover, the loss of personnel experienced in operating one of Europe’s few hydrometallurgical recycling plants will make any future restart extremely difficult. Skellefteå is not a natural center for this type of industrial expertise, further compounding the challenge. Consequently, we have completely removed Revolt’s future capacity from our recycling capacity forecasts.