Battery Recycling Summit 2023: Preparing for a different world

Attendees of the Asia INTL Li-ion Battery Recycling Summit 2023, held in Singapore in early December, met at the same time global representatives were hashing out an agreement to wean the world away from fossil fuels as an energy source at the COP28 meeting.

The focus of several presentations was what the economic alternative energy landscape might look like when fully realized, with one perspective coming from Kasturi Gomatham, global head of battery swapping at multinational petrochemical firm Shell.

One can argue companies like Shell will face some of the most challenging sets of adjustments, and Gomatham indicated that circumstance is top of mind at the corporation.

Changes are well underway at Shell, including in its Shell Recharge operations which now offers some 40,000 charging points globally.

As part of a companywide transition to electro-mobility and hydrogen, the company expects to have 70,000 such charging points by the end of 2025, investing some $500 million in the next two years.

The food and beverage retail aspects of the company’s current gasoline stations offer a revenue stream to be protected, Gomatham said, indicating globally the company sells some 500 million cups of coffee and 1.1 billion candy bars or other sweets annually.

On the recycling front, if the company is successful at turning its gas stations into EV charging hubs and in serving industrial battery uses and owners, that likely means it will increase its involvement in the battery repurposing and recycling sectors.

Gomatham said second-life battery-swapping activities offer a very useful value proposition for the company and its customers, noting it is a service model that works well for commercial fleets. In the battery materials recovery sector, Shell Ventures has invested in lithium-ion battery recycling technology providers Li Industries, based in Virginia, and Princeton NuEnergy, based in New Jersey.

Three consultants who offered presentations at the summit said there are good long-term reasons to invest in EV battery recycling but caution also can be warranted.

Ashkay Prasad of global consulting firm Arthur D. Little (ADL) said his company’s research points to excess demand for EV battery metals such as lithium and cobalt, and that a further supply shortage is looming.

North American and European battery producers, in particular, must rely on imported virgin materials, but recycling can come to the rescue. Eventually, Prasad said, any reduction in virgin lithium consumption in those markets is expected from the use of recycled metals.

While such estimates will eventually play out, Myriam El Kara, a founder and director of Singapore-based Sterling Acumen Pte Ltd., said investors in the sector must be careful.

Price volatility that can include long-lasting troughs for metals such as nickel and cobalt means it can be difficult to assign the probabilities of success of some EV battery projects in the pipeline, El Kara said.

As mentioned by fellow presenter Melin, El Kara said parsing out the difference between genuine end-of-life battery markets and second life (reuse) markets presents another difficulty.

The consultant urged recyclers and traders to hedge their purchases and sales, saying, “You don’t want to be caught out on the wrong side of the trade” when a metal like cobalt undergoes a price swing.

El Kara also said investments with smaller footprints—such as modular systems—can help mitigate risk, as can carrying insurance against unintended regulatory miscues that cause a loss in business from customers for environmental, social and governance (ESG) reasons.

In ESG reputational matters, “You’re never immune to one event [that] can hurt a business in an acute manner,” she warned attendees.

The Asia INTL Li-ion Battery Recycling Summit 2023 was organized by Shanghai-based Global Decision Maker Management Consulting Ltd. and took place at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport in Singapore in early December.