South Korean Cosmo Chemical commissions material recovery plant for lithium-ion batteries

Cosmo Chemical which in September 2021 announced it will build a battery recycling plant has finished the construction and started test operations. The plant which will produce up to 2,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 1,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of 2023.

The facility which will be able to process about 5,000 tonnes of black mass will be Cosmo Chemical's first commercial activity in the battery recycling industry although they previously have been processing cobalt products. The goal is to be scale the process over time and by 2026 have a capacithy of producting 3,400 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 9,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate and 2,800 tonnes of cobalt sulphate, equivalent to about 35,000 tonnes of waste batteries or 18,000 tonnes of black mass.

The pilot plant is recovering lithium by injecting black powder from cathode scrap, and then separating nickel and cobalt from the remaining filtrate.