On July 22, 2025, Changzhou, China – Global new energy giant GT PowerSafe announced that the “EcoCycle Super Recycling Plant” with a total investment of 3.5 billion yuan was officially put into operation. The plant uses revolutionary plasma dismantling + hydrogen reduction and purification technology to process 200,000 tons of decommissioning lithium batteries annually, the recovery rate of lithium, cobalt and nickel metal exceeds 99.5%, and the carbon emissions per ton of battery recycling are reduced by 92% compared with the traditional fire process, marking China’s first to achieve the goal of zero waste in the whole life cycle of power batteries.

Technological revolution: Four-dimensional innovation to solve the recycling dilemma
Plasma intelligent sorting:

At 30000℃, the ion beam accurately vaporizes organic matter, and separates aluminum-plastic film, copper foil and other materials within 0.2 seconds to avoid cross contamination caused by traditional crushing;

The purity of the precious metal recovery is 99.99%, which can be directly used in the production of new batteries.

Hydrogen reduction directed purification:

Using green hydrogen as reducing agent to extract cathode material, the wastewater discharge is reduced by 98% compared with acid leaching process.

The coprecipitation efficiency of nickel, cobalt and manganese was increased to 99.3%, and the recovery cost per ton was reduced by 35%.

Digital twin Control:

The AI vision system recognizes 32,000 battery models in real time, and the disassembly plan is automatically generated, increasing the production line switching efficiency by 20 times.

The blockchain traceability platform records the whole process data of each battery from “birth” to “rebirth”, and has been connected to BMW i3, NIO ET5 and other model terminals.

Negative regenerative Black technology:

After the graphite negative electrode was repaired by supercritical CO₂, the efficiency was restored to 95.7% for the first time (close to the level of new materials), and the world’s first commercial reuse was realized.

Commercial explosion: Bind 100 billion level strategic cooperation
Long-term agreement: Signed a 15-year exclusive recycling agreement with Tesla and NIO, covering 80% of its global retired batteries;

Urban mine: won the bid for battery recycling projects of bus groups in 10 cities such as Beijing and Shenzhen, with an annual processing capacity of over 5GWh;

International standards: The Technical Specification for Closed-loop recycling of lithium batteries for Vehicles has been adopted by the ISO/TC333 Committee and will become the benchmark for the global recycling industry.

The International Union for Circular Economy (ICEA) estimates that EcoCycle technology can reduce the life cycle cost of batteries by 18%, helping to achieve the target of “20% renewable materials must be contained in new batteries by 2030” set by the EU’s New Battery Law three years ahead of schedule.

Environmental revolution: Every ton of decommissioned batteries = 220 tons less mining
Resource conservation: The annual recovery of lithium salt in a single production line is equivalent to 8% of the annual production of Chile’s Atacama Salt Lake, reducing primary mining by 44 million tons;

Carbon inclusive value: 4.3 tons of carbon credits are generated for each ton of battery processed, which has been linked to Shanghai Environment Exchange, with an annual revenue of more than 500 million yuan;

Zero pollution commitment: The factory adopts zero waste water discharge design, and the plant roof is laid with 20MW photovoltaic power station to achieve 100% green electricity self-supply.

Global layout: Build a new map of resource circulation
GT PowerSafe launches three strategies simultaneously:

European replication: By 2026, the first overseas gigafactory will be built in Salzgitter, Germany, with an annual processing capacity of 80,000 tons;

Urban outlets: Set up a “battery bank” recycling station in 200 cities in China, and users can enjoy the old battery trade-in service by scanning the code to make an appointment;

Material feeding: Recycled lithium salt has been certified by Ningde Times and Panasonic for Tesla 4680 battery production, and its performance is comparable to that of primary ore.

“EcoCycle could change the geography of lithium resources, increasing the contribution of recycling from 5 per cent to 45 per cent of the increase in global lithium demand over the next 30 years,” says John Han, chief executive of BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining group.