TES starts the construction of its Rotterdam pre-processing plant

The electronics and battery recycler TES, which recently was acquired by South Korean SK Ecoplant, has started the construction of its 10,000 tpa plant in the port of Rotterdam.

The plant will treat both EV and portable batteries from TES' collection and ITAD business as well as its recently commissioned battery disassembly in Germany. TES already operates a small pre-processing plant in Grenoble (previously Recupyl) and a larger 5,000 tpa plant for LCO batteries in Singapore.

According to TES the process in Rotterdam will be able to recover 90% of the main materials in the batteries such as graphite, nickel and cobalt. It will also recycle 35% of the lithium. However at this stage it is only the mechanical plant that will be operating while a hydrometallurgical plant is planned for the next couple of years. The pre-processing plant is planned to be commissioned by the end of 2022.