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Li-Cycle's new battery recycling plant starts-up
Canadian-based battery recycling start-up, Li-Cycle, has announced that its new battery recycling plant in Rochester, New York is now operational.
What does the plant do?
Li-Cycle is tackling battery recycling by building decentralized "spokes" that will feed centralized "hubs". This new plant is a spoke—which means that it mechanically shreds used lithium-ion batteries to produce a mixture of lithium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel. That mixture is then sent to a hub to refine all of the materials for reuse (a hub in Rochester is coming soon).
Why it matters:
Conventional battery recyclers used a smelting process to recover battery materials, but Li-Cycle uses a hydrometallurgical process that enables recoveries greater than 95% (instead of 50%). The company sees the news as "a crucial step in scaling Li-Cycle's technology and creating a strong foundation for the circular supply chain for lithium-ion batteries".
Read the press release here.
LyondellBasell's PP technology chosen in China
Global petrochemical corporation, LyondellBasell, has announced that two of its polypropylene (PP) technologies were selected by Kaijin Blue Sky Energy to build a new facility in Wenzhou, China.
What technologies?
LyondellBasell's Spheripol technology was chosen for a 600,000 ton per year PP plant, and its Spherizone technology was chosen for a 300,000 ton per year PP plant. The two technologies are the most widely used PP production processes in the world.
Who needs all that PP?
About half of the world's newest polypropylene plants are being built in Asia (nearly 90 million tons are made per year). You can read all about PP here, but the majority of the polymer finds its way into packaging, equipment, household appliances, and the automotive industry.
Read the press release here.
The largest DAC plant in the world
Direct air carbon capture (DAC) company, Climeworks, has announced that it has begun construction of what will be the world's largest DAC plant (for now).
So how big is it?
The plant, once operational in early 2021, will capture and sequester 4,400 tons of CO2 per year. That may sound like a lot, but the typical passenger vehicle emits about 5,000 tons of CO2 per year.
Not the largest for long...
Pulling CO2 out of thin air is no easy feat—that's because air contains just 400 ppm CO2 (roughly 0.04%). Technologies to do this at a meaningful scale are still under development, but Climework's new plant is about to be dwarfed by a new plant in West Texas. That new plant, a joint venture between Occidental Petroleum and Carbon Engineering, will capture 1 million tons per year (250,000 cars).
Read the press release here.