A Montreal-based recycling expertise firm has locked in funding to assist it scale up its technique for breaking down end-of-life electrical car batteries and making ready the uncommon metals they comprise for reuse.
Lithion Recycling Inc. closed the primary tranche of a $125-million funding spherical Jan. 24.
The corporate says it is going to use the capital to construct its first commercial-scale plant, put money into a tech improvement centre and rent as much as 100 new workers. It has been working an illustration website to show out its course of in Montreal’s Anjou borough since 2019.
Lithion CEO Benoit Couture mentioned the corporate’s expertise will play a “essential position” in Quebec’s battery and EV sectors, whereas Lithion can be engaged on bold plans to broaden globally.
“It is a essential second in Lithion’s historical past,” Couture mentioned in a launch. “Our eco-friendly expertise could be carried out all around the world to handle the worldwide problem of power transition.”
South Korea’s IMM Funding World led the primary tranche of the Collection A funding spherical. Fondaction, a Quebec-based fund, additionally participated. Lithion wouldn’t disclose the worth of the primary tranche of funding, however mentioned the entire spherical will complete as much as $125 million. Work on a second tranche that can wrap up the Collection A is already underway.
Lithion’s recycling technique works in two steps. The primary mechanically breaks down lithium-ion batteries into their plastic and steel parts. The second depends on a hydrometallurgical course of to isolate the important thing battery supplies, equivalent to cobalt, nickel and lithium, for reuse.
The corporate says its course of recycles 95 per cent of the supplies in EV batteries, serving to reduce the necessity for mining new supplies because the auto trade shifts away from gasoline and diesel automobiles. Lithion at present has capability to course of about 200 tonnes of end-of-life batteries per yr at its $12-million facility in Anjou. It’s already working with auto manufacturers equivalent to Hyundai Canada to recycle a number of the batteries from EVs and hybrids.
With the contemporary capital at its disposal, Lithion plans to scale up in a number of phases.
Its preliminary commercial-scale plant will give attention to simply the shredding portion of its course of. Jean-Christophe Lambert, the corporate’s enterprise improvement supervisor, mentioned Lithion is within the remaining phases of website choice for the ability, which will likely be able to processing 7,500 tonnes of spent batteries per yr. It goals to begin business operations by the top of 2022.
A plant devoted to the hydrometallurgical step will comply with in 2024.
Along with the company-owned Quebec operations, Lithion goals to faucet into international demand for EV battery recycling by licensing its expertise. It signed one such cope with South Korean building and recycling agency Dongseo Co. instantly following the funding spherical Jan. 25. Lambert mentioned a variety of companies worldwide have already got present networks for EV battery assortment and dismantling, however lack the expertise to extract the dear metals. He mentioned the corporate is in “superior discussions” for partnerships on tasks that depend on its expertise in each the USA and Europe.
The funding spherical and shift from demonstration to business operations will enable Lithion to greater than quintuple its headcount. It at present employs 17 folks and plans to rent about 100 new workers for its shredding plant and tech centre over the following 4 years.