Chinese company Shenghe, which specialises in industrial solvent recovery and advanced materials technologies, has chosen the town of Pedrola in Zaragoza province as the site for a plant that will recover solvents from electric batteries. Its Spanish subsidiary, Veranova Technology, will be responsible for this circular economy project.

According to the regional government, the planned investment will be around 25 million euros. The project, which will create around 100 jobs, will occupy a site of approximately 20,000 square metres and is expected to become operational during 2028.

Innovative recovery solutions
Shenghe Energy Technology, founded in 2009,  designs innovative NMP recovery solutions (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone), a chemical solvent used in battery manufacturing. The process takes place in a closed-loop system comprising recovery systems, distillation towers and storage tank areas. It does in addition produce its own conductive materials, such as single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) powder and conductive CNT dispersions to achieve the desired purity and performance.

Following this process, NMP will be recovered and purified at the future plant before being reintroduced into the production process. Its planned processing capacity is up to 100,000 tonnes of NMP per year.

Shenghe’s tower-type NMP distillation system has been designed to require less investment, maintenance, equipment and energy, while delivering an NMP recovery rate of at least 99.5% and an emission level of less than 0.4 parts per million for the waste gas generated by this chemical solvent. It incorporates a user-friendly, fully automated distributed control system.

^{Photo: Shenghe}