Oklahoma Lithium-Ion Processing Plant Brings New Jobs, Safety Concerns

Bartlesville, Okla. will be the future home of a multi-million dollar lithium-ion battery upcycling center and with it, it’s bringing a handful of jobs.

The facility will be in Bartlesville’s Industrial Center. The center will receive out-of-commission batteries and process them into black sand (shredded battery material) to be refined elsewhere. The center will open 50 jobs at first then max out at 90.

However, locals are concerned about the safety issues that could occur in a facility that deals with lithium-ion batteries. Residents feared that this new facility could suffer the same fate as a facility in Tulsa. The Tulsa Recycle Transfer Facility caught fire after contamination from a lithium-ion battery.

David Fauvre, Blue Whale Materials co-founder, explains that the facility has plenty of safety precautions.

"Our CTO built a plant based on this technology in Japan," Fauvre said. "It's gone through a commercial validation and demonstration. We know the process - the way it's designed - works."

Read the full article here.