TES to set up a new $20 million lithium-ion batteries recycling facility in Singapore

TES, the global electronic waste recycler, will reportedly open a new facility for recycling lithium-ion batteries in Singapore, said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon on Wednesday, October 30.

"This is an exciting development as the use of batteries for grid-related energy storage is projected to grow globally, to manage the increasing adoption of intermittent renewable energy such as solar," said Dr Koh at the Clean Energy Summit held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

The new facility, named TES B, is expected to cost about $20 million. This investment is seen as a company investment to exemplify green growth opportunities.

Dr Koh added that this new recycling facility would allow precious metals from the lithium-ion batteries to be reused to make new batteries for products such as mobile phones and electric vehicles, eliminating the need to source raw materials and reducing dependence on global suppliers.

According to a spokesman of TES, the facility is expected to be completed by February 2020, with the capacity to recycle 14 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries each day by using in-house technology and equipment.

The battery recycling process involves auto-punching machines and shredders that will first break batteries into fine substances. Then magnetic separators will be used to recover copper and aluminium from the substances and chemical treatment for recovering cobalt and lithium.

The facility is expected to cover a land area of 10,000 square metres.