© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The brand of battery recycler Li-Cycle Holdings Corp is displayed on their workplaces in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. June 30, 2022. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder/File Photograph
By Ernest Scheyder
(Reuters) – Li-Cycle Holdings Corp stated on Monday it’s going to construct a French facility to interrupt down batteries from forklift producer The Kion Group, marking the newest growth by the quickly rising recycling firm.
The French facility, which is predicted to open in 2024 and complement related websites beneath growth in Germany and Norway, will break down lithium-ion batteries that energy Kion’s forklifts and different heavy equipment, giving Li-Cycle a recent supply of batteries to recycle past the patron car market.
Li-Cycle declined to reveal how a lot it’s spending on the French operation, although the corporate has a $40 million finances for the yr to construct such battery processing amenities throughout the globe.
“We imagine strongly in a regional strategy to recycling as our clients start to localize their very own provide chains,” Tim Johnston, Li-Cycle’s govt chairman, advised Reuters. “Europe continues to be a progress heart for electrification, so we’re going to proceed to develop there.”
Li-Cycle estimates {that a} majority of Kion’s 1.7 million forklifts are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Given their heavy use, these batteries are more likely to put on down sooner than these powering client vehicles.
Li-Cycle’s European plan relies partly on its North American hub-and-spoke community, by which the corporate has constructed assortment and processing amenities throughout the continent to show batteries into black mass, which is basically shredded battery elements.
A central facility beneath development in Rochester, New York, will additional break down that black mass into lithium, nickel and different metals. Li-Cycle plans for now to supply black mass at its French and different European websites, after which ship that materials to Rochester for processing, Johnston stated.
The French announcement comes lower than a month after European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen visited Li-Cycle’s battery processing facility in Ontario.
