SK Tes has opened a new plant to recycle lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles (EVs) in the port of Rotterdam. The company, which specialises in recycling used appliances, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and batteries, said the facility was designed to process up to 10,000 tonnes of batteries each year. Expanding the site to an adjacent plot of land could double its capacity in the future.
Owned by the South Korean environmental and energy group SK Ecoplant, SK Tes intends to recycle both by-products generated during the battery manufacturing process and recalled and discarded EV batteries. SK Tec said that it would use its own technologies and innovative processes to extract black mass. The facility would use an “industry-leading inert crushing and vacuum drying process” to recycle batteries and battery production scrap.
“SK Tes has worked closely with automotive OEMs and battery manufacturers to understand their needs and ensure we remain at the forefront of recycling technology,” Chief Operating Officer Thomas Holberg said in comments to mark the opening. The company had already started to receive material from many customers and expected to run the plant at full capacity swiftly.
Tes started building the plant in Rotterdam back in the middle of 2022. SK Ecoplant acquired the recycler in the same year and renamed it SK this year. The group claims to operate more than 40 facilities in 20 countries where over 2,000 employees process and recycle in excess of 100,000 tonnes of material each year.
SK Tes’s portfolio of plants includes recycling and processing facilities for used and waste electrical and electronic equipment and battery recycling plants in Singapore, France and Shanghai. It has a total annual capacity of 15,000 tonnes. Towards the end of last year, the group announced plans to almost triple this capacity to 40,000 tonnes by building new plants. The opening of the plant in Rotterdam was a step in that direction, SK Tes stated.
