US battery recycler Ecobat announced plans to build a new lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Arizona.
It will be Ecobat’s third lithium-ion battery recycling facility, and its first in North America. The new facility will initially produce some 10,000 tons of recycled material per year, and plans to expand capacity to satisfy demand.
Ecobat Casa Grande in the state of Arizona will repurpose lithium-ion batteries reaching end-of-life through diagnostics, sorting, shredding and material separation, the company said.
This will produce a concentrated black mass containing the valuable materials in lithium-ion batteries. It will be located a mile from the existing Ecobat Resources Arizona facility, which for 15 years has been manufacturing anodes. Start-up is expected in the third quarter of this year.
Sandra Watson, President and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority, said: “With the addition of yet another global battery innovator, Arizona has become a central hub of energy storage and recycling technologies.”
Ecobat has lithium-ion battery recycling facilities in Germany and the UK.
