Attero Picks Telangana For Its Advanced Li-ion Battery Recycling Plant

Attero Recycling, India’s largest electronic waste recycling and the world’s largest Li-ion battery recycling company, today announced that it will invest ₹600 crores to set up a state-of-the-art integrated Lithium-ion battery recycling factory in Telangana. The facility will be spread over 50 acres and will increase Attero’s Li-Ion battery recycling capacity to 19,500 MT by the end of 2023 from its current capacity of 4,500 MT per annum. The decision to zero in on Telangana caps an extended search for the firm that began early this year for its next facility after Uttarakhand.

Attero has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Telangana Government to strengthen the li-ion battery recycling ecosystem in the country and establish a hub for Li-Ion battery recycling for its India operations. The new facility will provide direct employment to over 400 people and over 1,100 indirectly. The firm also plans to run the new plant completely on reneweable energy.

KT Rama Rao, Minister for IT & Industries, Telangana, said, “Telangana has been a pioneer in fostering a climate that would encourage the use of zero-emission vehicles. We were one of the first states to introduce the ‘EV & ESS’ policy in 2020. The EV ecosystem is thriving in the state and we are glad that Attero will also be a significant part of the ecosystem. We are happy that the company is investing to establish a new facility in Telangana that will generate employment opportunities.”

Nitin Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, Attero Recycling, stated, “We would like to thank the Government of Telangana for associating with us to set up the world’s most advanced li-ion battery recycling facility. This facility will be instrumental in paving the way for India’s independence in battery materials. Telangana is an ideal location as it is a hub for the EV industry and is creating a favourable environment for the adoption of zero-emission vehicles.”

“With EV production on the rise, lithium battery recycling is more important than ever. The improper disposal of Li-ion battery recycling is not only an environmental threat but also a wasted opportunity to extract rare materials. This new facility will increase our current capacity to recycle more Li-Ion batteries in an environmentally friendly manner. With our world-class technology, it will also maximise the recovery of battery materials like cobalt, lithium, nickel, graphite, manganese, and copper. Through such collaborative efforts, we see a good long-term potential of growth for India in an uninterrupted supply of rare battery-grade materials.”, he added.

Attero utilises proprietary and globally patented Avant-grade recycling technologies and has World’s Highest RER (Recycling Efficiency Rate) at 98%. It claims to have been been successfully recycling all kinds of end-of-life Li-Ion batteries (LFP, various NMC, LCO, LTO LMO etc), factory waste, and black mass and extracting pure battery grade Lithium Carbonate, Cobalt, Graphite, Nickel, Manganese among others. The extracted materials are sold in the market at LME or Fast Market prices ensuring a healthy circular supply chain. Currently, Attero also lays claim to be the the only company in the world to be approved by UNFCCC for safely reducing carbon emissions from recycling e-waste and Li-Ion waste.

The company intends to recycle 300,000 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries within the next five years. It is projected that 35% of the capacity to recycle 300,000 li-ion batteries will be built in Europe, 35% in the United States, 20% in India, and 10% in Indonesia.

The global recycling industry is projected to reach $22.8 billion by 2030, up from $4.6 billion currently, expanding at a CAGR of 19.6 per cent. With the planned capacity expansion, Attero would be able to meet 15% of the global demand for Li-Ion, 15% of the global demand for cobalt, and 15% of the global demand for graphite to emerge as a key player in the industry.

Founded in 2008, by brothers Rohan Gupta and Nitin Gupta, Attero Recycling has a state of the art recycling plant in Roorkee, Uttarakhand with a claimed recovery efficiency of more than 98% across various battery materials. As the first mover in the space, Attero says it can process and recycle LFP, LCO, LTO, NMC and all other types of Lithium-Ion battery chemistry. For its best-in-class technology, Attero has been granted 32 global patents to date and has applied for more than 200, says the firm.