Li-Cycle's Commercial Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Plant in Rochester Now Operational

ONTARIO, CANADA – Li-Cycle Corp. (Li-Cycle), North America’s largest capacity lithium-ion battery recycling company, today announced its Spoke 2 facility at Eastman Business Park (EBP) in Rochester, New York is now fully operational. The company’s Spoke 2 will produce an intermediate mixed battery material product (known in the industry as ‘black mass’) from all types of spent lithium-ion batteries, in addition to the black mass currently being produced at Spoke 1 in Kingston, Ontario. The new Rochester facility has the capacity to process up to 5,000 tons of spent lithium-ion batteries per year, which brings Li-Cycle’s total recycling capacity to 10,000 tons/year through its two North American Spokes. 

Founded in Mississauga, Ontario, Li-Cycle provides a solution to the global end-of-life lithium-ion battery problem, while creating a secondary supply of critical battery materials through its innovative recycling technology. Li-Cycle’s Spoke & Hub Technologies minimize the overall environmental footprint of the end-to-end resource recovery process and substantially reduce the intensity of GHG emissions that would otherwise be produced from mining these finite resources. 

Historically, most lithium-ion battery recyclers have used a smelting process to recover these valuable battery materials, resulting in high emissions and the loss of critical metals. With Li-Cycle’s recycling services, these inefficiencies are eliminated without creating any waste as a byproduct. 

“This is a crucial step in scaling Li-Cycle’s technology and creating a strong foundation for the circular supply chain for lithium-ion batteries in a world where increased electrification is needed to combat climate change,” said Li-Cycle CEO Ajay Kochhar. “Our goal is to better manage end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in order to meet the increasing demand for critical battery materials by creating a local source for these materials in North America.” 

Li-Cycle has reinvented the recycling process by developing and validating patented technologies that enable recoveries of at least 95% of all materials found in lithium-ion batteries through an innovative, zero-waste process. This compares to the industry norm of less than 50% recovery. The company processes all types of lithium-ion batteries regardless of their previous application, chemistry, or state of charge. 

Both Spokes will supply black mass to Li-Cycle’s future Hub, which will be constructed at Eastman Business Park in Rochester by 2022. The Hub will process black mass in order to produce critical, battery-grade materials from recycled sources, as well as other recycled materials that can be returned to the economy. 

Li-Cycle recently closed a Series C equity funding round to fund this development and to drive expansion into international markets. 

About Li-Cycle Corp.

Li-Cycle Corp. (Li-Cycle) is on a mission to leverage its innovative Spoke & Hub Technologies to provide a customer-centric, end-of-life solution for lithium-ion batteries, while creating a secondary supply of critical battery materials. Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are increasingly powering our world in automotive, energy storage, consumer electronics, and other industrial and household applications. The world needs improved technology and supply chain innovations to better manage the end-of-life of these batteries – and to meet the rapidly growing demand for critical and scarce battery-grade materials through a closed-loop solution.