Sustainable development company Neometals has launched its first commercial recycling facility through its joint-venture, Primobius.
The objective of the venture is to use Neometal’s sustainable LIB recycling technology and commercialise it.
Primobius is Neometals’ battery recycling joint-venture with the SMS Group, which has inaugurated its 10 tonnes per day (tpd) commercial lithium-ion battery in Hilchenbach, Germany. Primobius operations will commence in Q2 2022 after it has received operating permits.
Demonstration plant trials on the two-state recycling process have so far been completed.
The joint-venture will undergo two stages, with an initial ‘Shredding Circuit’ stage, which was altered in the fourth quarter of 2021 to fast-track commercial operations and capture market share.
The company is scheduled to follow-up with its stage 2 ‘Refinery Circuit’, which will allow cost analysis and feasibility studies to be assessed for larger 50tpd recycling plants.
Prior to scaling up to nameplate capacity, the 10 tpd Shredding Plant is set to go through a ‘ramp-up’ stage, which will see the battery disposal contract with a German battery waste firm providing the initial feedstocks for the start of operations.
Participants in the German electric car sector are anticipated to provide the remaining feedstock capacity.
Primobius’ 10tpd commercial disposal service will also allow the company to demonstrate its operational capacity to customers. Market conditions are favourable for long-term hydrometallurgical recycling to close the battery supply chain loop.
The joint-venture is currently well positioned in the commercial market with an industrial scale solution, ahead of potentially massive volumes of end-of-life LIBs requiring recycling by the middle of the decade.
Primobius is expecting a federal emission operating licence from German authorities in the near future, allowing the 10tpd Shredding Plant to operate at a maximum battery input rate of 10 tpd. The disposal service will produce immediate income while also demonstrating the Shredding Circuit’s efficacy and operability at a 1:5 scale of the larger commercial units that are currently being reviewed.
The newly listed company, Neometals saw its shares drop 2% to 96p despite the launch of a new recycling facility.
