SK Ecoplant Completes Battery Recycling Plant in Jiangsu Province, China

Annual Production of 2,000 Tons of 'Black Mass'
Netherlands Recycling Plant to Complete Within the Year

SK ecoplant has completed the construction of a battery recycling plant in China, the world's largest electric vehicle battery producer, through its specialized battery recycling subsidiary TES.

On the 13th, SK ecoplant announced that it held a completion ceremony for the battery recycling plant on the 12th at the Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone in Jiangsu Province, China. About 80 people attended, including Park Kyung-il, President of SK ecoplant; Terence Ng, Chairman of TES; Lee Cheol-soo, Head of SK ecoplant Nanjing Corporation; Tan Bing, Chairman of Z-Cycle; Zhu Bin, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Committee of Yancheng City; and Suo Sengdang, Secretary-General of the Chinese Communist Party Committee of Yancheng City.

On the 12th, SK ecoplant held a completion ceremony for its battery recycling plant in the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, China. Park Kyung-il, President of SK ecoplant (sixth from the left), Terence Ng Tes, Chairman of TES (third from the left), and Tan Bing, Chairman of Zicycle (fourth from the left), are posing for a commemorative photo. (Photo by SK ecoplant)

SK ecoplant Nanjing Corporation and the Chinese battery recycling joint venture Z-Cycle are collaborating to carry out this project in two phases. Z-Cycle is a battery recycling joint venture established in 2019 by TES and Zhong-Yi, a Chinese new energy business investment company.

It is one of 15 companies in China capable of battery reuse (sequential use) and recycling (regenerative use), the first battery recycling operator approved in Shanghai, and operates both pre-processing and post-processing facilities for battery recycling.

The newly completed first-phase battery recycling pre-processing plant covers an area of 8,000㎡ and produces 2,000 tons of "black mass" annually. A second pre-processing plant of the same scale is currently under construction nearby, and upon its completion at the end of 2024, the total annual production capacity of black mass will reach 4,000 tons.

The pre-processing plant physically and safely disassembles and crushes collected scrap (defective products generated during battery manufacturing), end-of-life electric vehicle batteries, and recalled battery volumes, extracting black mass, which is the stage before extracting battery raw materials.

Black mass is an intermediate processed material in the form of black powder made by collecting, discharging, dismantling, and crushing used batteries. Through post-processing of black mass, rare metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel can be extracted.

SK Ecoplant's Used Battery Recycling Plant in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, China (Photo by SK Ecoplant)

SK ecoplant plans to use this Jiangsu Province battery recycling plant as a strategic hub to secure waste batteries and scrap. Synergies are also expected with the Shanghai battery post-processing plant currently operated by TES through Z-Cycle.

SK ecoplant and its subsidiary TES have secured bases, technology, and permits in the battery recycling sector. They have established logistics forward bases through global hubs in 50 locations across 23 countries, and the battery recycling plant under construction in Rotterdam, the Netherlands?one of Europe's largest ports?is also scheduled for completion within this year.

TES holds more than 30 "Basel Permits." According to the Basel Convention, which prevents illegal transboundary movements of hazardous wastes, permits are required to send collected waste batteries worldwide to recycling facilities in other countries.

Park Kyung-il, CEO of SK ecoplant, stated, "The Yancheng Battery Recycling Center was born from the combination of SK ecoplant’s innovative eco-friendly solutions and Z-Cycle’s unique battery recycling technology, marking an important milestone that presents sustainability for the global battery industry. We will accelerate our global battery recycling market leadership by strengthening competitiveness through our technological capabilities and global network."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.