The Canadian Li-Cycle chooses Hauts-de-France to set up a battery recycling unit – Le Journal des Entreprises

The Canadian manufacturer Li-Cycle, which specializes in the high-efficiency recycling of lithium-ion batteries, is about to establish itself in Europe. In addition to two sites, in Norway and Germany, open between 2023 and 2024, the company founded in 2016 is also focusing on the French market. And according to Nord France Invest, which supported the group in its efforts, it was the Hauts-de-France and its “battery valley” that caught its attention. It is therefore in Harnes, within the Lens-Liévin urban community (62), that the first French “Spoke” of Li-Cycle will see the light of day, bringing the number of factories in the group to seven.

Operational in 2024, this site employing around 30 people will have an initial processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery materials per year. There will be implemented the technology patented by Li-Cycle, which allows it to recycle all types of lithium-ion batteries with a raw material recovery rate of up to 95%. Its capacity could eventually reach up to 25,000 tonnes. The Harnes plant will increase Li-Cycle’s future capacity to more than 100,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries per year for all of its processing centers.