Ecobat To Build C. Arizona Battery Recycling Plant

Ecobat will build its third lithium-ion battery recycling facility—and its first in North America—in Casa Grande, Ariz. The facility is intended to initially produce an estimated 10,000 tons of recycled material per year, with plans to expand capacity to satisfy the increasing need to recycle lithium-ion batteries from the growing numbers of electric vehicles.

The Casa Grande facility will repurpose lithium-ion batteries reaching the end of their useful lives, by a process including sorting, shredding and separation to produce a concentrated black mass containing the valuable materials in lithium-ion batteries. Last December, Ecobat purchased an existing 64,000 square foot facility for $9.6 million in all cash. The company says it plans to start work on the new plant in the third quarter of this year. It will create 60 new jobs.

Casa Grande is in Pinal County, about midway between Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.

The company already operates lithium-ion battery recycling facilities in Germany and the U.K.