Li-Cycle hosted the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the company's lithium-ion battery recycling facility located in Kingston, Ontario.
During the visit, Prime Minister Trudeau and President von der Leyen were joined by Li-Cycle co-founders Ajay Kochhar and Tim Johnston as they toured Li-Cycle's first commercial Spoke facility and observed lithium-ion batteries being recycled in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. The leaders discussed Li-Cycle's Spoke & Hub technologies during the visit.
"We are excited to have hosted Prime Minister Trudeau and President von der Leyen at our Ontario Spoke. As a Canadian company, we were honoured to have the privilege and opportunity to showcase our innovative and sustainable Spoke technology to Prime Minister Trudeau and President von der Leyen. Li-Cycle plays an essential role in creating a domestic supply of battery materials in Canada and Europe to help further drive electrification," says Ajay Kochhar, co-founder and CEO of Li-Cycle.
"As Li-Cycle expands upon its significant first-mover advantage in the North American market, we continue to advance our global growth strategy and progress with the deployment of our technologies in Europe. We believe that Prime Minister Trudeau's and President von der Leyen's visit further reinforces Li-Cycle's exceptional value proposition for Canada's and Europe's burgeoning battery supply chain, also as we expect to operationalize our largest Spoke facility to date in Germany later this year," says Tim Johnston, co-founder and executive chairman of Li-Cycle.
Li-Cycle's Spoke & Hub technologies enable up to a 95 percent recycling efficiency rate and returns battery-grade materials found within lithium-ion batteries and battery manufacturing scrap into the supply chain. Additionally, sustainability is core to Li-Cycle's business of battery recycling and resource recovery, which uses technology to ensure the Spoke & Hub operations have an efficient environmental footprint. This includes processes that have minimal solid waste streams to landfill, zero wastewater discharge, and low air emissions.
Li-Cycle's Spoke network
Li-Cycle's spokes safely recycle battery materials through a submerged shredding process to produce ‘black mass,' an intermediate product which contains highly valuable metals, including lithium, nickel, and cobalt. Li-Cycle's third-generation of spokes have the capability to directly process full electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage battery packs without any manual dismantling.
Li-Cycle currently operates four spokes that can together recycle more than 50,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material per year. These spokes, which are located in Kingston, Ontario; Rochester, New York; Gilbert, Arizona; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, establish a footprint in key regions to support the recycling needs of lithium-ion batteries. Li-Cycle expects to have a total operational processing capacity of more than 80,000 tonnes per year of lithium-ion battery material across its network in North America and Europe by the end of 2023.
Germany spoke and European expansion plans
Li-Cycle's first European spoke will be located in Germany near the city of Magdeburg and is expected to be the company's largest spoke facility to date, with a total processing capacity of 30,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material per year. The Germany spoke is expected to have two main lines capable of processing full EV battery packs without dismantling, in addition to ancillary processing capacity, and is scheduled to be operational in the second half of 2023.
Li-Cycle's Germany spoke is expected to support its growing customer base in Europe and leverage existing infrastructure with access to renewable energy and transportation outlets. Germany represents a large market for both battery manufacturing scrap and the expected supply of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in Europe.
Li-Cycle continues to develop its Norway spoke which is located in the city of Moss. To further support the clean energy transition, the Norway spoke is expected to be powered by clean renewable energy, including geothermal heating. The Norway spoke, is expected to have a processing capacity of up to 10,000 tonnes per year and is expected to be operational in 2024.
Ontario spoke and Canadian expansion plans
Li-Cycle's existing facility in Kingston, Ontario, is Li-Cycle's first spoke and commenced commercial-scale operations in 2020. Li-Cycle is currently progressing with its plans to develop a new spoke and warehouse facility in Kingston to replace the existing site, with the initial site work expected to commence in 2023. Li-Cycle's new Ontario spoke will use the company's latest ‘Generation 3' spoke technology and is expected to have a processing capacity of up to 10,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material per year, double the existing facility's processing capacity.
Li-Cyce's Rochester hub
At Li-Cycle's hub facilities, Li-Cycle will process black mass to produce battery-grade materials. Li-Cycle's first commercial hub facility is under construction in Rochester, New York and is expected to initiate commissioning in late 2023.
The Rochester hub is expected to create a source of recycled battery-grade lithium carbonate in North America and is designed to have a processing capacity of 35,000 tonnes of black mass per year, which is equivalent to approximately 90,000 tonnes or 18 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of lithium-ion batteries. Once fully operational, the Rochester hub is expected to deliver annual production of 7,500 to 8,500 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate, 42,000 to 48,000 tonnes of battery-grade nickel sulphate, and 6,500 to 7,500 tonnes of battery-grade cobalt sulphate, in addition to other valuable materials.
