The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
AMY, Italvolt enter lithium-ion battery recycling tech MOU Metal Tech News – March 24, 2021
A rendering of Italvolt's proposed 45 GWh lithium-ion battery gigafactory in the heart of northern Italy's Motor Valley.
With RecycLiCo, cathode scraps can be turned into aluminum foil, nickel-cobalt hydroxide, and lithium carbonate. These materials can be reused to create new lithium-ion batteries.
American Manganese Inc. has entered into a preliminary agreement to develop a lithium-ion battery cathode recycling facility alongside a battery gigafactory being developed in Italy by Italvolt.
Founded and led by Lars Carlstrom, a pioneer industrialist in the automotive sector with more than 30 years of experience, Italvolt is advancing the development of a battery factory in Scarmagno, a northern Italian town about 65 miles west of Milan.
The gigafactory is to be built at the site of a factory and industrial area that was once where Olivetti manufactured typewriters, computers, and printers for about 40 years beginning in the 1960s. The roughly 250-square-mile industrial site with industrial rail access in the heart of Motor Valley – home to Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati – is considered an ideal locale for Italvolt's 45 gigawatt-hour lithium-ion battery factory, which would be the first gigafactory in Italy and one of the largest in Europe.
A memorandum of understanding entered into by the two companies, outlines plans for collaboration on a facility that will utilize American Manganese's patented RecycLiCo process to recycle waste lithium-ion battery cathode material at the Italvolt gigafactory.
"Italvolt is a next-generation gigafactory that aims to promote competitive sustainability in Europe by addressing the social, economic and environmental issues related to lithium-ion batteries," said American Manganese President and CEO Larry Reaugh. "We are thrilled to be part of their initiative and collaborate as an Italvolt-RecycLiCo vertically integrated recycling strategy to promote a circular and climate neutral economy."
American Manganese and Italvolt believe this collaboration is a strategic response to the European Commission's proposed Batteries Regulation, a directive aimed at ensuring batteries entering into the European Union market are sustainable and safe throughout their entire life cycle. This means batteries that are produced with the lowest possible environmental impact, which includes high recycling rates of valuable materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese.
During pilot plant testing, the RecycLiCo process extracted up to 99.7% of lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt from lithium-ion cathode material and produced recycled products with up to 99.99% purity.
"We are very excited about the collaboration with American Manganese," said Carlstrom. "We have already initiated the engineering process in order to integrate the recycling plant within the gigafactory. Using the ground-breaking circular technology that they have developed is a big step forward that will allow Italvolt to produce the greenest batteries in the world."
Italvolt plans to ramp up capacity at the Italian gigafactory to 45 GWh by 2024, with potential expansions to 70 GWh in the future.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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