Blackmass refining | India can become a lithium-ion battery recycling hub
Rubamin starts lithium-ion battery blackmass refining at their facility in Halol, Gujarat. In this interaction, Bhuwan Purohit, Executive Director of Rubamin Pvt Ltd, discusses multiple aspects of lithium-ion battery recycling, including the urgent need for the authorities to take note and curb the rampant malpractices in EPR credits claims and export of blackmass from India.
What is the current status of Rubamin’s LIB blackmass refining facility in Gujarat?
The Blackmass refining facility has begun production, and we have already processed the first batches of Blackmass. We expect to be in full-scale operation within a month, as it typically takes that long for a hydromettalurfy facility to stabilize and ensure consistent quality output.
Could you list the end products that will be obtained from your refining facility?
- Graphite is separated and converted into a product for some existing applications. Since graphite comes from multiple batteries, refining it into a completely circular product is challenging with the current technology.
- Our existing customer base requires Cobalt Carbonate and Cobalt Hydroxide. We will also convert Cobalt into Cobalt Sulfate for battery companies. Some have also requested Cobalt Chloride, which we will also produce, though not this year.
- Then we have Manganese Sulfate, Nickel Sulfate and Nickel Hydroxide.
- From Lithium, we will produce Lithium Carbonate in our first batch, but we have also been asked to manufacture Lithium Hydroxide, which can be done.
Essentially, once you have a pure metal ion, you can convert it into different forms— Sulphate, Hydroxide, or Carbonate. We already follow a similar process with Molybdenum, Vanadium, Tungsten, and Cobalt extracted from spent catalysts. Our goal is to build a diverse portfolio of products to meet the needs of industries, particularly the battery sector. Ideally, we want all of it to go back into batteries, making the process more circular.
Are you already sourcing Blackmass from Indian producers? Also, please share the status of customer qualification for the end products.
Yes, we are sourcing Blackmass from Indian shredding units. Additionally, we now have an import license to bring in material from outside India in case we face challenges in procuring from domestic suppliers due to their noncompliance in defining their product.
Blackmass is classified as hazardous material, but many shredding units sell it as a product under HS codes and nomenclatures that do not align with the government’s regulations. This creates challenges for us, but we believe that, over time, these issues will be resolved. Eventually, we aim to source all our Blackmass from the domestic market, with imports serving only as a backup rather than a necessity.
Regarding customer approvals, we have been in business for over 40 years, supplying chemicals to markets across every continent, including India. In the battery sector, we have been providing samples for the past year to various battery and battery precursor companies, and they have found them to be very high quality. While they will still need to approve the final material produced at our commercial facility, this process is already in motion. We will soon begin sending out samples from the plant, and given the quality of our facility and the standards Rubamin upholds, we expect customer approvals to follow shortly.
When we spoke last time, you mentioned a target scale of 5,000 TPA for Blackmass refining. How long do you anticipate it will take to achieve that scale?
I think we will exceed 3,000 TPA this year and surpass 5,000 TPA starting next year. When I say 5,000, that refers to the nameplate capacity envisioned during the construction of a hydrometallurgy operation. However, the actual capacity depends on the speed of throughput and the type of material processed. It has been based on NMC, which contains all the metals, whereas LFP has fewer metals, freeing up significant capacity.
Therefore, the final capacity will depend on the material mix. It can easily reach 7,500 TPA, and if needed, we may even exceed that. This will become clearer over time.
Is there currently a case for profitably recycling LFP chemistry batteries?
Recycling is a statutory and environmental necessity. We already have contracts where suppliers pay us to recycle LFP. If there’s a funding gap, it must be covered by the government, customers, or producers—those profiting from the material.
Since hazardous waste dumping is not an option, recycling will happen, and someone will bear the cost. We can recycle efficiently, recovering lithium, copper, and aluminium. The cost burden will likely fall on producers or the government, which currently supports recycling through EPR credits.
However, in India, EPR credits are often just paper trades, with many issued by entities that never truly extracted the material—some merely exported it improperly.
What are your concerns about the current EPR credit claims and blackmass export?
Black mass is a hazardous waste and cannot be sold as a regular product. It has always fallen under hazardous waste regulations with an HS Code 8549, a chapter under which waste from primary batteries or electronic and electrical waste is classified.
However, some players are exporting black mass as a product, claiming it contains lithium, cobalt, and nickel as if they have recycled the battery and created a new product. They have then sold EPR credits to electronics, mobile, and other producers, even though they never had the right to earn those credits. Unfortunately, this practice is rampant. Ultimately, producers are paying for EPR credits, which means they are funding the export of critical materials from India.
Exporting blackmass requires approval from MoEF&CC and a license from DGFT. However, the reality is that many are misclassifying blackmass under false names or incorrect HS codes, bypassing these permissions and exporting it unchecked.
Customs, DGFT(Directorate General of Foreign Trade), CPCB(Central Pollution Control Board), and MoEF&CC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) must take urgent notice and put an end to it as soon as possible.
When Rubamin buys black mass from shredding units, is the price the same as what they get in the international market?
If we couldn’t offer the best price, we wouldn’t exist. Why assume foreign buyers pay more? Exporting black mass involves paperwork, freight, and port expenses, while India benefits from lower labour costs, lower investments, and better yields.
The fact that we buy blackmass locally proves we can match global prices and even pay better prices.
The reason black mass is preferred for export is not because Indian recyclers cannot match the international price, but rather that if shredding companies sell in India, they will not receive any EPR credits, as they cannot classify black mass, which is considered hazardous waste, as a product.
Considering all the current hydrometallurgy capacities in India, do we have enough to absorb the output from all domestic LIB shredding units?
When you combine the capacities of different recyclers in India, they far exceed the country’s blackmass generation. I estimate that under 10,000 tons of black mass is exported from India annually, and if that’s the case, Rubamin alone could process it. The belief that India lacks capacity is a myth. India likely has more operational capacity than Europe or the U.S.
We have obtained an import license as sourcing blackmass in India is challenging due to the illicit exports I mentioned about earlier.
If Customs, DGFT, and MoEF take a stand and stop the material export, India has the potential to become a global recycling hub for hydrometallurgy alongside Korea and China.
Another crucial step government need to take is securing bilateral agreements with the U.S., Europe, and advanced nations to allow the import of black mass and battery waste into India. As a non-OECD country, India is restricted from receiving these materials, which flow freely to Korea, Japan, and other economies. Recognising black mass as a critical resource that can be safely recycled within India presents a major opportunity—one that India must seize.
What measures are you implementing to mitigate the environmental impact of your hydrometallurgy operations?
Hydrometallurgy is indeed a process that can pose significant environmental risks. However, we have been operating a hydromet facility for over 25 years, and for nearly nine years now, we have been functioning in an engineering zone with zero discharge and zero waste to landfill.
To address air quality concerns, we have implemented robust mitigation measures, such as dual stage scrubbers and electrostatic precipitators, to ensure that no particulate matter is released into the environment. Shredding operations are prone to fire and hazards from carcinogenic compounds. Additionally, persistent organic pollutants are released during shredding operations, which we have controlled through inert shredding (preventing fugitive emissions), electrolyte condensation systems, and robust scrubbing mechanisms – which are absent in almost all the shredding facilities in India.
Soil contamination is common in most hydrometallurgy facilities in India due to the handling of acids and hazardous raw materials. We have designed our shop floor and tanks with interconnected systems that minimize manual handling to mitigate this. Raw materials will be transported through pneumatic suction systems instead of open sacks.
This will be one of the safest, most compliant, and most sustainable black mass recycling facilities in India and the world. Additionally, modern hydrometallurgical processes come with critical safety concerns. To tackle this, we have partnered with DSS+, formerly known as DuPont Safety Systems, which is a gold standard in safety.
Cover image source: Rubamin Pvt Limited
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