Battery development and production are critical for Europe in the context of clean energy and automotive transition. There is a huge rise in the global demand for lithium-ion batteries, and a report from the European Commission found that the EU could account for 17% of this global demand by 2030, the second-highest share worldwide.
To tackle this challenge, the EU has published a proposal for a new Sustainable Batteries Regulation as part of its wider strategy for a climate-neutral, resource-efficient EU economy.
As the executive vice president for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans is responsible for a comprehensive set of policy initiatives designed to allow the European Union to become the first carbon-neutral continent on the planet by 2050.
TES is committed to improving the collection and recycling of portable and industrial batteries in Europe, and the new Port of Rotterdam facility helps support the European Union’s goals laid out in the European Green Deal. To extend existing facilities in Grenoble (France) and Singapore, TES plans to have its site operational in the strategically located Port of Rotterdam by the end of 2022.
The existing 10,000-square-meter (approx. 110,000 square feet) facility has the option to extend to over 40,000 square meters (approx. 430,000 square feet). The facility will be the first lithium battery recycling plant in the Netherlands and will initially have a shredding capacity of 10,000 tonnes each year, which will extend to 25,000 tonnes annually. The award-winning hydrometallurgical process that focuses on the recovery of nickel, cobalt, and lithium as precursor feedstocks for the battery industry will be integrated.
Commenting on the recent visit by Frans Timmermans, Thomas Holberg, Global Vice President of TES Sustainable Battery Solutions, said: “Our mission at TES is to ‘close the loop’ on lithium battery production by encouraging reuse and improving the collection and recycling of the scarce metals and materials they contain. Discussing our battery recycling strategy with Frans Timmermans, we are more excited than ever about how climate sustainability and economic prosperity go hand in hand as a key tenet of the Green Deal.”
In addition to the Port of Rotterdam site, TES is currently commissioning its first Chinese battery recycling site in Shanghai and plans to open additional facilities across all major global regions in the coming years. The facilities will use the award-winning proprietary technology perfected in TES’s flagship facility in Singapore.
From Left to right: Frans Timmermans, Gary Steele, Thomas Holberg, Henny van Dort, Allard Castelein
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