Page 165 - CW E-Magazine (17-12-2024)

News from Abroad

PROJECT FEASIBILITY
Li-Cycle and Glencore move ahead on European

battery materials recycling hub

Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., a Canada- of at least 15% of strategic raw materials
based lithium-ion battery resource by 2030. Mr. Ajay Kochhar, Li-Cycle’s
recovery company, and Glencore Inter- President and CEO, said, “We believe the
national AG, a wholly-owned subsi- project has significant potential and can
diary of Glencore, a leading producer, address the lack of post-processing recy-
recycler and marketer of nickel and cling capacity in Europe needed for a loca-
cobalt for the production of lithium-ion Li-Cycle leverages its ‘Spoke & lised closed-loop battery supply chain
batteries, are resuming their collabora- Hub Technologies’ to recycle all dif- and provide a sustainable secondary
tion to assess the technical and economic ferent types of lithium-ion batteries. At source of critical battery materials. Sepa-
viability of developing a new hub its spokes, or pre-processing facilities, rately, we remain focused on securing
facility in Portovesme, Italy, including the firm recycles battery manufactur- a full funding package needed to restart
a concept and pre-feasibility study. ing scrap and end-of-life batteries to construction at our flagship Rochester
produce black mass, which contains a Hub project and enable the first advance
The study is expected to be led and number of valuable metals, including under the finalised DOE loan facility.”
funded by Glencore, with Li-Cycle pro- lithium, nickel and cobalt. At its
viding technical expertise and support. future hubs, or post-processing facil- Following the recently announced
The project would utilise infrastructure ities, Li-Cycle plans to process black $475-mn loan facility with the US
and equipment at Glencore’s existing mass to produce critical battery-grade Department of Energy, a major milestone
Portovesme metallurgical complex in materials, including lithium carbonate, in the company’s funding efforts for
Sardinia, Italy and leverage Li-Cycle’s for the lithium-ion battery supply chain. the Rochester Hub project, Li-Cycle re-
patented ‘Spoke & Hub Technologies’ mains focused on securing the complete
to produce critical battery materials Once operational, the Portovesme funding package required to restart the
such as lithium, nickel and cobalt from Hub would be expected to support the Rochester Hub project’s construction
recycled battery content. The black European battery supply chain by provid- and satisfy funding conditions for the
mass processed at the Portovesme Hub ing sustainable post-processing recycling first advance. Li-Cycle is also continu-
would be supplied from Glencore’s capacity. The company believes the pro- ing efforts to strengthen its spoke busi-
commercial network and Li-Cycle’s ject would also support meeting EU mini- ness through optimisation initiatives
spoke recycling facility located near mum recycled content requirements for and improvements at its core ‘Genera-
Magdeburg, Germany. new batteries and the EU recycling target tion 3’ spoke recycling facilities.
Nouryon opens customer paint application centre in US

Dutch speciality chemicals firm, complement the company’s portfolio
Nouryon, has opened a new paint ap- of products including Bermocoll and
plication centre in Bridgewater, New Alcogum rheology modifiers and
Jersey, US. “The new centre will drive Alcosperse dispersants. Nouryon will
the development of new paint techno- focus its application science on improv-
logies, enhance response times, and ing the balance of properties in paints
accelerate the evaluation of market-ready and coatings, optimising cost perfor-
innovations,” the company said. mance, and meeting customer sustain-
ability objectives.
The centre will prioritise architec-
tural decorative paints, focusing on support hub for Nouryon’s customer The application centre is equipped
product development, enhancing appli- base by developing innovative additive with testing facilities and staffed by ex-
cation properties, and improving speed solutions that can be used to optimise perienced paint formulation scientists
to market. It will serve as a technical paint formulations. The centre will and technicians.

Chemical Weekly December 17, 2024 165

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