Fenix Battery Recycling launch new facility

New site will specialise in electric vehicle battery recycling.

UK-based Fenix Battery Recycling has opened a new multi-chemistry battery recycling facility in Kilwinning near Glasgow, UK. The site will play an important part in the firm’s plans to develop facilities to offer on-site recycling for multiple battery types, with the site specialising in recycling Electric Vehicle Batteries (ELV), among other battery types.

The news comes after the company alongside Ever Resource and the University of Birmingham, UK, received significant grant funding to develop an innovative technology to make lithium-ion battery recycling cleaner and more sustainable. The funding from the Government’s Innovate UK Smart Grants programme is for the development of separation technologies for end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.

Damian Lambkin, Commercial and Business Development Director at Fenix Battery Recycling says, ‘The sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK will end in 2030. Electric vehicle sales are already surging and within the next decade it is anticipated there will be a huge demand for the recycling of the lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles. There is a pressing need to develop commercial lithium-ion battery recycling in the UK to avoid these batteries having to be shipped abroad.

Fenix Battery Recycling also has a plant at Willenhall in the West Midlands, UK. It has been ready to recycle alkaline batteries since October 2020. It will become fully operational once it receives its permit from the Environment Agency – a process which has been delayed by Covid-19. The lithium-ion processing operation at Willenhall will start in the next 6-12 months.