Abstract:
Electric vehicles use lithium batteries as its source of electric power, however
batteries that are no longer in use will become waste. To reduce pollution, used batteries
can be recycled into lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate is a chemical compound that
has many uses. Based on projected data, the supply of lithium carbonate in 2025 will not
meet world needs where there is a shortage of 140,000 tons. Therefore, the construction
of a lithium battery recycling plant into lithium carbonate has the potential to continue to
grow, aid in the world lithium carbonate’s supply, has great potential to increase exports
and decrease the amount of waste in the environment.
This plant is planned to be built in Cilegon, Banten with a production capacity of
20,000 tons each year. The plant construction will begin in early 2026 and will start
operating in 2027. The process of recycling lithium battery waste into lithium carbonate
is divided into preprocessing and main processing.
In the preprocessing unit, a discharging process is carried out to keep the process
safe from potential charges by immersion in 10% w/w NaCl solution, followed by
mechanical separation to take out the cathode using a crusher, vibrating screen, flotation
tank and RDVF filter. In the main processing unit, the cathode powder is fed into the leaching reactor.
Leaching will be carried out using 2 M H2SO4 and 4% H2O2 with a solid ratio (S/L ratio)
of 1/10. The output of the reactor is fed to the centrifuge filter and evaporated by 50%
with the evaporator to maximize the precipitation process. Precipitation will be carried
out in 2 reactors, where the first reactor precipitate cobalt, nickel, and manganese metals
using oxalate before entering the second reactor where lithium metal will be precipitated
using carbonate. The end result is lithium carbonate with a purity of 99%. The lithium
carbonate manufacturing process needs utilities in the form of 203,600 kg/hour of water,
450 kWh of electricity and 4,100 kg/hour of biodiesel fuel.
This company is incorporated as limited liability company (Ltd) with line and
staff as its organizational structure. The company is led by one president director with
225 employees. Several economic analysis have been carried out, with results as follows:
1. The plant’s construction will be carried out for one year starting in early 2026, so that
the plant can operate in 2027
2. Total Investment Capital (TCI)
: Rp 5,920,000,000,000
3. Annual rate
: 10.00 %
4. Loan period
: 5 years (1 year grace period)
5. Break Even Point (BEP) in the first year : 35.4 %
6. Internal rate of return (IRR)
: 33.5 %
7. Minimum Payback Period (MPP)
: 4 years 7 months
From the results of the above economic analysis and supported by a stable and
growing Indonesian economy, a lithium carbonate factory with a capacity of 20,000 tons
per year is feasible to build.
