Lohum to invest Rs 2000 crore to build largest battery recycler plant at Krishnagiri

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:
Energy transition materials maker Lohum will be investing more than Rs 2,000 crore to build largest battery recycler plants in the country at the future mobility park at Krishnagiri district.

Speaking to The New Indian Express on the sidelines of Investopia Global here on Wednesday, Lohum's head of Corporate Development Sachin Maheshwari said that the facility will be set up on 65 acres of land and the investment will be made over a period of six years.

"We are looking at a capacity of 20 gigawatt hour of cathode active materials (CAMs) production which is used for cell manufacturing and later it goes into the battery," he said. "We are now setting up the plant and the factory will be set up in the next 18 months," said Sachin Maheshwari. He said the goal of setting the plan is to have consumption at the local level. However, he did not rule out exports.

Sachin said that the battery recycler will not only cater to used batteries but also electricals and rare earth magnets. We want to be playing a role in the critical minerals identified by the Union government which include cobalt, Lithium, platinum among others. "Our goal is to sustainably produce this metals," he said.

"Recycling and reuse is our first goal and at the same time our operation should be Net Zero in the usage of energy. We do a little bit of research on rare earth metals and we are planning to scale it up," said Sachin.The energy transition from fossil fuel energy to low-carbon energy is mineral intensive. Rare earth elements are core components of clean energy technologies such as wind turbines and electric vehicles.

Though India is exploring the possibility of tapping critical minerals, including lithium and cobalt, by looking to acquire mines in Zimbabwe or Australia, it is not viable, said Sachin. He said people think lithium and batteries are all the same but in reality lithium is only 3% of the battery. "The world is moving towards Lithium  Ferro Phosphate. Lithium is the only valuable material. When you move towards that you can't source lithium from the mines as it is unviable. As such recycling plays a key role," he said.

Sachin said that the company is also setting up a plant in the United Arab Emirates. The company already has eight plants -- seven in Greater Noida and one in Gujarat with a capacity of 150MW hour.

India anticipates a substantial influx of retired lithium-ion batteries in the coming years. Projections estimate that by 2030, the country will have approximately 128 GWh of lithium-ion batteries available for recycling, with 46% originating from electric vehicles alone.