KUALA LUMPUR: Ni Hsin EV Tech Sdn Bhd (NH EV Tech), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ni Hsin Group Bhd, has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Sirim Bhd to set up a lithium-ion battery recycling plant in Malaysia through a public-private partnership funding model.
Both parties will also cooperate on providing an ecosystem for a circular economy model to mitigate the impact on the environment due to lithium-ion batteries being processed illegally in the country.
The companies will set up a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in the country and introduce a lithium-ion battery recycling policy by working with the government.
NH EV Tech managing director Khoo Chee Kong said the company is looking forward to unlocking another piece of the environmental puzzle following its launch of EV motorcycles last month.
"As the world has grown to love and depend on the power and convenience brought by lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), their manufacturing and disposal have increasingly become subjects of political and environmental concerns.
"Most discarded LIBs eventually landfilled or stockpiled, contaminating the land while wasting energy and non-renewable natural resources. If not recycled and reused, LIBs will exert massive environmental impacts and accelerate the depletion of mineral reserves," he said.
He added that during the end-of-life stage of LIBs, poor handling and disposal could increase the risk of fire or poisoning.
"In the coming years, the real challenge will be disposing of the huge number of batteries from electric vehicles.
"There is now a need for qualified e-waste recyclers that can handle and recycle LIBs safely and responsibly," said Khoo.
He noted that setting up the recycling plant is the right step in furthering Ni Hsin's green mission in support of the government's commitment towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusive development in line with the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
Sirim president and group chief executive officer Datuk Indera Dr Ahmad Sabirin Arshad said the company is ready to work with any parties keen to explore any form of recycling business where they can contribute in terms of the latest technologies.
The Sirim-Ni Hsin lithium-ion battery recycling pilot plant will be fully operational in 2023 with an annual recycling capacity of 550 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries.
For a start, the output will be sold to lithium-ion battery manufacturers in the form of black mass.
"Under this collaboration, both companies will focus on recovering precious metals such as lithium and cobalt in 2024 and embark on lithium-ion battery manufacturing in 2025, when the volume by processing more lithium-ion batteries from other nations," added Ahmad Sabirin.