TES claimed to be one of the largest companies worldwide in the battery and e-waste recycling. The company has taken the lease of a 10,000-square metre facility along the Elbeweg, including a 2,000-square metre building, with plans to extend, providing a 40,000-square metre site in total.
The facility is planned to be fully operational by late 2022 and will be the first lithium-ion battery recycling plant in the Netherlands. The number of electric vehicles is increasing rapidly, which leads to both a huge rise in global demand for lithium-ion batteries as well as discarded batteries, said its press release.
Said Port of Rotterdam CEO Allard Castelein: 'We are working not only towards a net zero CO2 emission port and industry in 2050, but also looking at ways to make the industry more circular. Therefore besides working on projects regarding for instance hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, it's important to take significant steps to establish circular production processes. The TES project in Rotterdam is exactly that. This could very well become the largest European facility for recycling batteries from electric cars.'
Said TES vice president Thomas Holberg: 'We have an unwavering ambition to turn the Port of Rotterdam site into a state-of-the-art European battery recycling facility. Once up and running, we will have up to 10,000 tonnes annually of shredding capacity and a subsequent hydrometallurgical process which focuses on the recovery of nickel, cobalt and lithium as a precursor feedstock for the battery industry.'
The recovery rate of precious metals exceeds 90 per cent and yields a purity level of almost 99 per cent. Thus, the metals recovered from lithium batteries are commercially ready for fresh battery production. TES plans to use comparable technology in Rotterdam.
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