Li-Cycle to operate its largest battery recycling facility

Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., a Toronto-based lithium-ion battery recycler, has announced it will operate its sixth and largest lithium-ion battery recycling spoke facility at the Ultium Cells battery cell manufacturing megafactory site in Warren, Ohio.

In May 2021, Ultium announced an agreement with Li-Cycle to recycle up to 100 percent of the scrap generated from battery cell manufacturing.

Ultium Cells is a joint venture between General Motors Corp. (GM), Detroit, and LG Energy Solution. The $2.3 billion manufacturing facility is currently under construction and expected to be operational early next year. Li-Cycle says this new recycling facility continues its focus on growing its spoke-and-hub network in North America.

“Building this spoke facility alongside Ultium Cells’ plant is expected to substantially optimize costs and logistics as we transform manufacturing scrap from the plant into highly valuable material using our unique, sustainable and fit-for-purpose approach," says Ajay Kochhar, president, CEO and co-founder of Li-Cycle. 

Li-Cycle’s new facility supports its previously announced multiyear agreement to process the battery manufacturing scrap from Ultium Cells’ factory. Ultium Cells will construct a new building for Li-Cycle’s facility, and Li-Cycle will install and operate its spoke technology and equipment after construction is complete, providing on-site conversion of battery manufacturing scrap to intermediate products.

According to Li-Cycle, it expects the Ohio facility to reduce the costs associated with moving and handling battery manufacturing scrap and will be optimized for the particular types of scrap generated at the Ultium Cells plant.

The Ohio facility will have the capacity to process up to 15,000 tons of scrap and battery materials per year, bringing Li-Cycle’s total global recycling capacity to 55,000 tons of lithium-ion battery input per year, the company says. The primary output of the spoke facility will be black mass which will be converted into battery-grade materials at its hub facility in Rochester, New York, which began construction last year to increase processing capacity.

“Our collaboration with Li-Cycle is an instrumental step in improving the sustainability of our components and manufacturing processes,” says Kevin Kerr, Ultium Cells’ Ohio plant director. “This facility is another bold step forward in our sustainability journey here at Ultium Cells.”

Earlier this week, Li-Cycle announced it was forming a joint venture to build a battery recycling facility in Norway—the company's first outside North America.