Stena Recycling will double down on its work to build a 10,000 tonnes-per-year lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Sweden following an investment from the government power regulator Swedish Energy Agency.
Stena will now intensify its work on the construction of the new recycling plant in Halmstad after receiving the SEK70.7 million ($7.6 million) investment.
The facility will include recycling capabilities for lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles, as well as industrial and consumer products.
The company hopes to have the plant operational in the first quarter of 2023.
In addition, the firm is creating battery centers around Europe to ensure an infrastructure for collecting the batteries.
Stena’s investment aims to keep it ahead of the EU directive, scheduled to come into force from 2025, that will impose stricter requirements on battery recycling and the recovery of materials such as cobalt, lithium and nickel.
Stena’s recycling technology is based on grinding batteries in an inert environment, followed by a process to separate the different fractions in order to recover metals.
Last December, Stena, part of Swedish-based Stena Metall Group, begun construction of the plant in Halmstad, after it invested 250 million SEK ($29 million).
