Testing lithium-ion battery materials in a new pilot plant has been a key focus recently for American Manganese (AM) in British Columbia. Certainly the new plant is part of an ambitious plan to construct several recycling plants capable of processing 50-100 tonnes of batteries per day. More tests conducted on selected cathode scrap materials during March will confirm the capabilities of the process.
The new pilot plan process has five steps; pre-treatment of cathode material; leaching of active material; purification; recovery of base metals; and lithium recovery and water recycling. Finally, the process delivers 100% extraction of cathode metals at battery-grade purity.
Management are confident that the pilot test will be successful and the plant scaled up.
Kemetco on board with testing lithium-ion
Most noteworthy, Kemetco Research is the processing partner of American Manganese. They expect the new pilot plant for testing lithium-ion will prove the viability of AM’s patent-approved lithium-ion battery recycling technology.
Consequently, the new pilot plant is generating a lot of interest in Europe. Certainly the company is confident that they will be able to set up battery recycling plants outside of North America.
CMA Ecocycle is currently collecting and recycling batteries. As a result of concerns over batteries going into landfill and the need for professional recycling management, the Rowe family has created a new company.
Envirobat is a wholly owned subsidiary company that will collect and recycle all types of batteries. Most noteworthy it will safely recover and process mercury, lead, silver, nickel cadmium, steel, lithium and plastic.
Above all, with purpose built facilities in every state, Envirobat can provide a battery disposal and collection service for businesses nationally. Importantly, Envirobat will use hydrothermal recycling process to extract valuable materials for recycling and future processing. Hydrothermal processes use in-solution chemistry to isolate component chemical compounds from battery waste.
