TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — Li-Cycle, a leading North American recycler of lithium-ion batteries, has launched commercial operations at an advanced recycling facility in Tuscaloosa that will support the company’s growing electric-vehicle battery supply customer base across the Southeast.
Li-Cycle’s Alabama Spoke, as the facility is called, utilizes the company’s patented, environmentally friendly technology to recycle and directly process full EV battery packs without any dismantling through a submerged shredding process that produces no wastewater.
“This facility enhances our ability to support the recycling needs of our diverse and growing customer base in North America to ensure lithium-ion battery material is recycled in an environmentally friendly and safe manner,” said Ajay Kochhar, co-founder and CEO of Li-Cycle.
“Li-Cycle is creating an essential domestic supply of recycled material to support EV production and assist automakers in meeting their domestic production content requirements,” Kochhar added.
The company, which announced plans for the Tuscloosa facility in September 2021, celebrated its opening with a ceremony last week.
“With EV production beginning in Alabama, Li-Cycle’s Tuscaloosa recycling facility will ensure that our state takes part in the battery repurposing proposition that is at the heart of the sustainability advantages that EVs offer,” said Greg Canfield, Secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce.
GROWTH POTENTIAL
Li-Cycle’s Alabama Spoke is more than 100,000 square feet in size and has an additional 120,000 square feet in warehousing capacity. The facility has the same design as its Spoke in Arizona, which opened earlier this year.
The Alabama Spoke has created 45 jobs and will leverage key process improvements and optimization projects implemented in Arizona.
The Alabama Spoke has a total input processing capacity of 10,000 tons of lithium-ion battery materials per year and has the flexibility to expand processing capacity in the future.
Li-Cycle said its Alabama Spoke is strategically located to support recycling needs across the region. The development of the EV supply chain in the Southeast continues to accelerate as battery and automotive manufacturers establish operations.
This growth is expected to continue to produce a significant amount of battery production scrap and end-of life batteries that will require recycling.
Governor Kay Ivey congratulated Li-Cycle on the opening of its Tuscaloosa facility.
“Li-Cycle’s new battery recycling facility in Tuscaloosa adds a dynamic new dimension to Alabama’s evolving auto industry,” Governor Ivey said.
“This facility will play an important role in the lifecycle of batteries powering electric vehicles by contributing an innovative sustainability solution,” she said.
BATTERY-GRADE MATERIALS
By the end of next year, Li-Cycle expect to have 65,000 tons per year of lithium-ion battery material processing capacity across its Spoke network in North America and Europe.
The primary output product of Li-Cycle’s Spokes is “black mass,” consisting of highly valuable critical metals, including lithium, cobalt and nickel, which the company will convert into battery-grade materials at its first commercial North American Hub facility, now under construction in Rochester, New York.
After it opens in 2023, that facility is expected to be able to process enough black mass to yield battery materials equivalent to 225,000 EVs annually, according to Li-Cycle.
