Lithium-ion batteries, Seval invests 30 million in disposal poles

Two plants on the national territory, one in Lombardy and one in Basilicata, for a treatment capacity of almost 30 thousand tonnes per year of lithium ion batteries, and a total investment of about EUR 30 million, partly covered by Pnrr funds. The Seval group will build them in Colico (Lecco) and Balvano (Potenza) next to two already operational electronic waste (WEEE) treatment plants. The family-owned group, founded more than 30 years ago and based in Colico, comprises in fact seven companies with 11 plants in Italy that process mainly WEEE, but also other materials related to this type of waste (such as plastics, cables, toner), as well as packaging and medical waste.

"We are a national reference operator for the recycling of WEEE, a market leader in Italy," explains Alessandro Danesi, commercial director of the parent company: "Of our sites, the largest one, in Colico, has been processing household batteries for more than ten years. The most important work is the selection because there are so many subcategories: we sort them by chemical type and downstream we have a plant that grinds the alkaline ones and produces materials such as zinc, brass, iron. Over the years the other types have grown and we have partnerships with operators in France and Germany to process them. Lithium ion batteries are the ones that are increasing the most, we use them every day, in smartphones, in scooters, in electric cars. From this increase came the idea of developing our own recycling platform. Currently, apart from a small plant in the province of Vicenza, all end-of-life lithium ion batteries in Italy are sent abroad for treatment'.

The technology chosen by Seval is that of the so-called deep discharge: 'We will not use heat treatment to inert the batteries, which is also dangerous, but they will be connected to machines that recover the energy, completely discharged they will then be ground and separated,' continues Danesi, who points to Germany's Duesenfeld as the partner from which this technology has been imported. And in late 2025 and early 2026 the two plants will be operational, with the first deep discharge operations expected by the middle of next year, with the possibility of storing the batteries made inert. "We will present the authorisation for operation as an innovative plant to the Lombardy region at the turn of the summer, we count on it being ready in a year," Danesi continues.

The two new plants will each have a full capacity of 10-15 thousand tonnes per year, the first in Italy on this scale. They will serve a potentially ever-growing market, which today in Italy as placed on the market counts annually "50-60 thousand tonnes of batteries from the automotive industry, 40-50 thousand from the photovoltaic industry, 20-30 thousand from portable devices such as PCs, smartphones, and hoovers," explains Danesi.