EMR to build major UK plant for production of recycled battery raw materials

Major recycling firm EMR is planning to establish a lithium-ion battery shredding and recycled battery raw materials extraction plant in Birmingham, the UK, the company said this week

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The plant will begin on demonstration scale from the first half of 2025 with an initial capacity of 1,000-1,500 tonnes per year, processing electric vehicle (EV) batteries collected by EMR, Roger Morton, managing director technology and innovation at EMR, told Fastmarkets on Thursday May 2.

EMR also announced on May 2 that it has acquired a “substantial stake” in Australian-owned battery recycling technology firm Renewable Metals.

“The demonstration plant will use Renewable Metals’ hydrometallurgical process route and it will process batteries, refining them to recover metals and metal salts suitable to go back into the circular battery supply chain,” Morton told Fastmarkets.

“If, as we expect, the demonstration scale development is successful, we expect to work with Renewable Metals and other partners to establish bigger plants in the UK and elsewhere, in line with growth of the battery recycling market,” he added.

Renewable Metals’ recycling process which will be utilized at the EMR plant involves a two-stage process comprising shredding discharged battery modules, followed by refining steps that yield high-quality nickel, copper, cobalt, lithium, and manganese salts. These extracted minerals can seamlessly re-enter the battery supply chain, promoting circularity and reducing reliance on virgin resources, according to EMR.

EMR has long been engaged in dismantling and discharging of lithium-ion battery scrap, but the new announcement marks a much greater involvement for the firm in the rapidly-expanding battery recycling sphere.

It follows significant plans by other major traditional recycling companies entering into the lithium-ion battery scrap and black mass space, including Sweden’s Stena Metal, which started operations its 10,000-tonne-per-year lithium-ion battery shredder in Halmstad during March 2023.

Germany-headquartered metals recycler Cronimet is also building capacity in the space, and is building a 28,000-tonne capacity lithium-ion battery shredder which attracted investment from Chinese cathode giant CNGR.

Although shredding units such as Stena and Cronimet’s Revomet Bitterfeld are popping up across Europe, the capacity for consuming the black mass produced by these shredders remains low on the Continent.

Major firms are investing in hydrometallurgical post-treatment facilities for black mass in Europe include chemicals giant BASF, minerals firm Eramet and nuclear fuel firm Orano, but many of these efforts are only in pilot or demonstration stages, requiring only small volumes of black mass.

The lack of local buyers is one reason for why European black mass payables are significantly lower than those in major importer market South Korea.

Fastmarkets’ weekly assessments for the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, domestic, exw Europe, % payable LME nickel cash official price and for the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end) were both 53-57% on May 1, flat from April 24.

By comparison, Fastmarkets’ weekly assessments of the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, cif South Korea, % payable LME nickel cash official price and the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end) were both 68-73% on May 1, unchanged week on week.

Asia’s premium in the payables can be explained by logistics costs and documentation needed to ship to Asia, as well as quality differences – with the CIF Korea methodology only accepting dried free-flowing material – and differences in both payment times and local supply-demand dynamics in Europe, according to market sources.

Get more insights and intelligence to understand the future of the li-ion battery recycling market in our dedicated battery recycling hub.

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