The United States will become home to an expansive new battery recycling plant after prominent recycler Li-Cycle entered into a conditional commitment for a $375 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office.
Li-Cycle will open the doors to its $485 million processing facility in Rochester, New York later this year having already secured the necessary funds to do so. It will then use the loan to expand the company elsewhere. Li-Cycle confirmed in a press release that the loan has a 12-year term and an interest rate matching the 10-year U.S. Treasury rate.
“$375 million will now supercharge Li-Cycle here in Rochester, with 270 good-paying jobs, to become one of America’s largest suppliers of recycled materials for batteries,” Senator Charles Schumer said. “Last year, I stood alongside Li-Cycle’s powerhouse workforce and promised I would push to deliver federal funding to spark more growth, and now thanks to the investments I secured in the Inflation Reduction Act, Rochester will help power America’s drive to lead in battery technology.”
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The Rochester Hub is expected to be the first commercial hydrometallurgical resource recovery facility in North America. Its hydrometallurgical technology produces no wastewater discharge and relatively low air emissions. It will have the capacity to process and recycle the equivalent of 90,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery material each year while also producing up to 8,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 48,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate, and 7,500 tonnes of cobalt sulphate.
The site will create approximately 270 permanent jobs and more than 1,000 jobs during its construction.
“The Rochester Hub is a cornerstone asset for Li-Cycle and its stakeholders and will be an important contributor to the clean energy economy,” added Li-Cycle co-founder, president, and chief executive Ajay Kochhar. “As a sustainable pure-play battery material recycling company, we expect the Rochester Hub will position Li-Cycle as a leading domestic producer of recycled battery-grade materials for accelerating electrification demand to address climate change and secure energy independence.”
