Li-Cycle enters joint venture to build battery recycling plant in Norway

Li-Cycle has formed a joint venture with ECO STOR and Morrow Batteries to build a new commercial lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Norway that will be capable of processing up to 10,000 mt/year, with operations expected to start in early 2023, the companies said Jan. 26.

"This is a significant step for Li-Cycle as we deploy our proven lithium-ion battery resource recovery solution to the European market and execute on our global growth strategy with key industry partners," CEO Ajay Kochhar said in a statement. "Norway's early leadership in EV adoption and ecosystem is a beacon for electrification globally, creating a robust market for both battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries domestically."

Toronto-based Li-Cycle will operate the recycling plant, which is expected to process battery manufacturing scrap, full electric vehicle battery packs, and energy storage systems.

The facility will produce black mass, the product of battery recycling that contains a combination of critical battery metals. Li-Cycle will have the right to acquire 100% of the black mass output.

Energy storage developer ECO STOR will supply the plant with end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, and battery cell maker Morrow will provide battery manufacturing scrap from its planned facilities in Norway.

"This partnership will develop a closed material loop ecosystem supporting European customers and will ensure we continue to deliver value from battery materials through re-use and recycling over the long term," Morrow CEO Terje Andersen said in the statement.

Both ECO STOR and Morrow are based in Norway.

Norway was chosen as Li-Cycle's first recycling location outside of North America because the country is expected to phase out sales of internal combustion engine vehicles by as early as April.

"This would be three years ahead of the 2025 target proposed by the Norwegian government and could result in a significant, long-term supply of end-of-life batteries," Li-Cycle said.

The companies are currently finalizing the site for the plant and awaiting regulatory approvals.

Li-Cycle currently operates recycling plants in Kingston, Ontario, and Rochester, New York. Each site has a lithium battery processing capacity of 5,000 mt/year.

The battery recycler will open a third processing center in Arizona in 2022, also with 10,000 mt/year capacity, followed by a full-scale "North American Hub" in Rochester in 2023.

The Rochester hub will have the capacity to recover battery-grade materials from the equivalent of 60,000 mt of lithium batteries a year.