The recent boom in the NEV market has also led to a sharp increase in installations of NEV power batteries. This trend has also raised the concern that after the next few years, China will see a huge quantity of power batteries being decommissioned and discarded. On the other hand, such situation will also provide an enormous opening for businesses and policies related to battery disposal, resource recovery, and environmental protection. Both the public and private sectors in China are now accelerating their efforts in the development of a domestic industry for power battery recycling.
In support of domestic policies related to capping and reducing CO2 emissions, Chinese battery supplier SVOLT and compatriot material supplier CNGR have formed a joint venture called Ivy Recycling Resources (Shangrao). The ceremony to celebrate the establishment of the joint venture was held on September 23. Through this new entity, SVOLT formally branches into the market for power battery recycling.
Based in Shangrao, a city in China’s Jiangxi Province, Ivy Recycling is jointly controlled by a wholly-owned subsidiary of SVOLT and a holding subsidiary of CNGR. According to the available information, Ivy Recycling has a registered capital of RMB 20 million, and its legal representative is named Quan Su-han. The business portfolio of Ivy Recycling encompasses manufacturing and sales of batteries; resource recovery service and consultation; and recycling and reuse of NEV power batteries.
Ivy Recycling will adopt the latest and safest physical process for dissembling power batteries. Battery cells and electrodes will be grounded into powders and sorted to recover black powder, copper, aluminum, etc. This physical dissembling process is touted to have the highest recovery rate of 99% for black powder and be able to significantly reduce the cost of extracting other valuable metals through the follow-up hydrometallurgical process.
Established in 2014, CNGR focuses on the development, manufacturing, additional processing, and sales of precursors used in cathodes of Li-ion batteries. Its main offerings include precursors for ternary cathodes and cobalt (II,III) oxide for LCO cathodes.
In November 2021, CNGR entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with SungEel HiTech, a South Korean battery recycling company. Together, they will develop a battery recycling business catering to the European market. The extent of the cooperation includes recycling service, battery dissembling, and hydrometallurgy. Both parties are expected to benefit from the expansion of their respective global battery recycling networks and hydrometallurgical processing capacity. In addition to its home country, SungEel HiTech is also operating in China, Hungary, Poland, and Malaysia. Its processing capacity for Li-ion batteries now reaches around 24,000 tons per year and is projected to rise to 56,000 tons per year in the near future with the growth of its hydrometallurgical processing capacity in South Korea. In terms of resource recovery, SungEel HiTech has the technological capability to extract valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium from battery wastes.
Regarding the operation of Ivy Recycling, CNGR will be in charge of scaling up processing capacity and technological development, while SVOLT will be responsible for dissembling battery cells and grinding them into black powder. The metals recovered from the black powder (via hydrometallurgy) will then be shipped to SVOLT’s material suppliers for precursors and cathodes. The joint venture’s plant site will be developed in two phases that respectively comprise battery and electrode dissembling lines.
SVOLT said Ivy Recycling will accelerate the formation of its own integrated and closed-loop industry chain. The joint venture will also help SVOLT improve its market competitiveness by cutting down the costs of procuring raw materials.
(Image: SVOLT)
This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.