TES to build repurposing and pre-treatment plant in Australia

The e-waste and battery recycling company TES has been awarded a grant from New South Wales EPA of AUS $1.9M ($1.3M) which will contribute the funding of a plant for repurposing and pre-treatment of lithium-ion batteries, primarily from energy storage systems.

TES which in January 2022 was acquired by SK Ecoplant, does already operate facilities for e-waste and reuse of electronics in Australia. With the new plant the company takes a first step to process end-of-life batteries. The company says the plant will be able to process 2,000 tonnes of batteries without specifying whether on pack or cell level nor how much the whole investment in the plant will be. TES expect the plant to require a staff of 20. The project was funded under the NSW EPA Circular Solar Grants Program.

Australia does already today have a some pre-processing capacity through the company Envirostream which is a subsidiary to Lithium Australia. In this process batteries are shredded and than sold to Sungeel Hitech in South Korea.