Attero Recycling, an E-waste Recycling company, plans to invest $1 billion to increase its lithium-ion recycling capacities across the world to three lakh metric tonnes per year by 2027, according to a top official.
Nitin Gupta, CEO of Attero Recycling and co-founder of the company, stated that at the moment the company recycles lithium-ion only in India. However, with new investment, the company will increase its recycling capacity to 1.5 lakh MT globally by 2025 with a $500 million investment and then to three lakh MT by 2027. This is in addition to an additional $500 million investment.
“There is an increased focus on electric vehicles, which has resulted in an increased demand for lithium-ion battery recycling. By 2030, 2.5 million tonnes of lithium-ion batteries will have reached end-of-life. With a stronghold in the Indian market, we plan to set up operations and mega recycling facilities in Poland (Europe), Ohio (USA) and Indonesia, with an investment of USD 1 billion,” Gupta said.
The European facility would be operational by Q4, 2022. The USA facility will follow the same schedule, with the USA facility being up and running by 2023. The Indonesian factory will then be up and running by 2024.
“This capacity expansion will enable Attero to become a global leader in fulfilling green metal demand and meet over 15 per cent of the world’s demand for cobalt, lithium, graphite, and nickel, amongst others. By doing this we will be saving annual carbon credit in the range of half a million tonners. Meanwhile, Attero will continue to ramp up its India operations,” Gupta said.
Attero currently recycles 3,500 MT of Lithium-ion in India. The company is increasing its capacity by October 2022 to 11,000 MT. The company plans to increase India’s capacity to 50,000 MT by 2027.
“Through our NASA-recognised technology developed in India and patented globally, we can effectively recycle the materials in a sustainable manner and extract pure metals that can be ploughed back into the economy. We have maintained the highest purity (battery grade) and recovery efficiency (98 per cent) across various battery materials including cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, manganese while maintaining lowest capex and opex in the world in this space,” Gupta said.
Attero will collaborate with partners to expand internationally in markets such as Europe, the USA, and Indonesia.