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ZCycle, a joint venture between Singapore-based TES and Shanghai-based Zhongyi Industrial has commissioned a 10,000 tpa reuse and recycling plant for EV batteries in Shanghai covering the entire process from assessment for reuse to recovery of nickel, cobalt and lithium. The plant is still considered a demonstration plant and will be expanded further in the future.
According to TES, the plant, located in Jiading Industrial Zone, is the first and only local all-in-one battery processing facility approved by the Shanghai government and will also serve the whole Yangtze River Delta region as well as Beijing and the Guangdong province.
The JV will exclusively be working in China.
Just like many other recycling companies in China major investments have been done on the front end of the process with a highly automated disassembly process with visual inspection system combined with industrial robot and CNC machining which automatically can disassemble EV batteries in a safe and efficient way. This is followed by a mechanical shredding and sorting line with a 10,000 tonnes intake capacity and subsequent chemical recovery of nickel, cobalt and lithium. The total investment is 130 million RMB (19.2M RMB).
ZCycle is currently deploying a number of recycling plants in its target regions but also in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Sichuan regions. It plans to complete the construction of the national recycling system and the establishment of the coordination mechanism within 5 years.
TES was recently acquired by SK Ecoplant which is part of SK Innovation, the owner of SK On. The company is developing a large collection and recycling network in Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia and is increasing its footprint in the US.