Project Overview.
In 2023, Li-Cycle Holdings engaged Giffen to complete a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) to evaluate the process and the technology for salt splitting of sodium sulfate using bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED).
Sodium sulfate is a low value by-product from the Li-Cycle Hub process. Li-Cycle is actively evaluating and developing options to upgrade the sodium sulfate into higher value product(s) or reagents that can be recycled back into the Hub process.
The first phase of the project would be a series of collaborative process workshops to explore the impacts of key project decision points, such as where the sodium sulfate is recovered from the overall process, how products and co-products of the upgrading process will be returned to process or to market, and what approaches will be considered to mitigate areas of high technical risk.
Project studies involve numerous decisions, many of which were assessed primarily based on their technical and financial merits – Giffen utilized a standard approach of assessing impacts to other criteria such as market availability and the environment. Giffen worked with Li-Cycle to ensure the basis for making decisions was understood and consistently applied across the project.
Li-Cycle is a leading global lithium-ion battery resource recovery company who is leveraging its innovative, sustainable, and patent-protected Spoke & Hub Technologies™ to provide a safe, scalable, customer-centric solution to recycle all different types of lithium-ion batteries.