Earthtech will be the first Korean company to enter the battery recycling business and recently started construction of a dedicated facility for dismantling electric vehicles and recycling used batteries.
The first construction phase is scheduled for completion in March 2020. Earthtech is reportedly able to dismantle 5,000 electric vehicles per year and process 2,000 tons of used batteries. Earthtech says it will invest 24 billion won (about $20 million USD) in the plant and that it is the first such facility at a single location.
At the plant, the batteries will first be tested for performance and, depending on their condition and capacity, prepared for use in stationary energy storage systems. If this is no longer possible, raw materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and other valuable metals are recovered from the electricity storage systems. Earthtech has not yet specified a targeted degree of recycling for the individual recyclable materials.
The dismantling is to take place under strict environmental conditions. The work will only take place in the workshop and therefore not outdoors.
When it comes to recycling batteries, Duesenfeld near Braunschweig showed how the recycling of batteries can work.