Tata Chemicals Starts Li-ion Battery Recycling Operations in Mumbai

• The company plans to scale up the capacity to recycle 500 tonnes of spent Li-ion batteries.
• It is also investing Rs 4,000 crore to set up a 10 GW lithium-ion battery plant in Gujarat.

In its bid to develop a sustainable circular economy, Tata Chemicals—part of the Tata Group—has started the commercial recovery of cathode active materials from spent lithium-ion cells/batteries.

The recycling operations are carried out at a 3P facility located near Mumbai and Tata Chemicals plans to eventually scale up the capacity to recycle 500 tonnes of spent Li-ion batteries.

Li-ion battery recycling allow recovery of valuable metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese at 99 percent plus purity within Industry leading levels of yield, according to the company.

As a result, the company believes that Li-ion battery recycling will help reduce environmental pollution, save energy and natural resources by extracting fewer raw materials from the earth.

New Plant

Tata Chemicals is also investing Rs 4,000 crore to set up a 10 GW lithium-ion battery plant at Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) in Gujarat.

The company will set up 1.7 GW capacity in the first phase at an investment of Rs 750-1000 crore and then scale it to 10 GW as demand rises.

Tata Chemicals has already been allotted 126 acres land in DSIR to set up Li-ion battery manufacturing business.

The company has signed a deal with the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) to develop technology for the recovery and purification of cathode and anode active ingredients from spent lithium-ion cells/batteries.

As part of this deal, Tata Chemicals will leverage C-MET’s intellectual property, capabilities and infrastructure to test and validate multiple recycling chemistries.

Input:  pv magazine