Li-Cycle enters next phase of growth in Rochester

June 1, 2022

Original article published in RochesterFirst.com

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Li-Cycle is continuing to grow its commercial lithium-ion battery recycling technologies in Rochester.

Li-Cycle’s Spoke facility at Eastman Business Park became fully operational in 2020. Now the company is building out a Hub facility to expand its capabilities locally.

Co-founder and Executive Chairman Tim Johnston discussed Li-Cycle’s business and growth Wednesday during our Greater Rochester Enterprise Why ROC conversation on News 8 at Sunrise.

“We are a recycling company,” said Johnston. “We focus on lithium-ion batteries — everything from the scrap and the waste that is generated through the manufacturing process up to and including end of life materials, so things like consumer batteries, things that come from our phones and laptops, and the like all the way up to and including electric vehicles and energy storage systems. We take all of that material in, we process it through our Spoke and Hub network, we process it into intermediate products through our Spoke network across North America and now growing around the globe to produce these intermediate materials which are ultimately coming back to Rochester.”

The Rochester Spoke facility was the company’s first North American/U.S.-based Spoke facility. “Now we’re building the refinery that is the next step,” said Johnston. “It’s the Hub part of the process. We’re taking those intermediate materials and we’re turning them back into the chemicals and materials that go back into the battery supply chain.”

The Hub facility will be located about a mile away from the Spoke facility in Rochester.

It’s expected to create 220 new jobs with an additional 600 during the construction phase. The expected investment is $485 million and the facility is on track for commissioning in 2023.

Why Rochester? Johnston said there are several factors. “We love Rochester. We’ve got great organizations like the Greater Rochester Enterprise group which has been a huge support in terms of being able to help us grow and develop our business here. We’re surrounded by great infrastructure. As you know Rochester has been an industrial city for decades now and what we’re about to do is use a lot of this historic infrastructure for the benefit of developing our business for this new energy economy that is emerging. Second, we have a great resource pool here in the Rochester region. We love all of our employees at the current Spoke facility and we’re starting to bring people in now for the Hub process. You combine that with the universities and trade schools and other great initiatives in the region that are supplying this resource pool — all of these things combine to make it just a great location for us to build out our business.”

Learn more about Greater Rochester Enterprise at RochesterBiz.com.