Brunp to recycle 300,000 tons of waste batteries per year

By Tan Maolin, Yichang International Communication Studio

Yichang Brunp expects to recycle 300,000 tons of waste batteries annually by 2025 once its integrated battery material industrial park in Yichang reaches full production.

Brunp, a subsidiary of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), China’s largest automotive lithium-ion battery maker, began building the CATL-BRUNP Integrated New Energy Industry Project in Yichang in 2021.

Waste batteries are processed in the park to produce lithium carbonate and iron phosphate products, which are major materials in the manufacturing of new batteries.

Since November 2023, the monthly production of lithium carbonate from the Brunp recycling project reached 1,100 tons.

By the end of 2023, Brunp had participated in the formulation and revision of 369 standards related to waste battery recycling and battery materials, and applied for 4,527 patents, according to Wang Hao, general manager of Yichang Brunp Integrated Battery Material Industrial Park.

Recycling 100,000 tons of used batteries is equivalent to reducing 1.5 million tons of raw ore mining, according to Brunp Recycling’s measurements.

In the industrial park, waste gas, water and slag can be captured and used for other processes as auxiliary materials, thus the project has reduced carbon emissions of anode materials by nearly 50 percent and chemical consumption by 40 percent.

As the industry grows, a number of upstream and downstream enterprises, such as Shandong Haike and Guangzhou Tinci, have settled in Yichang.

At present, Yichang has formed a new energy battery industry chain covering positive and negative electrode materials, electrolyte and diaphragm.