Refind offers ‘broader insight’ into battery market

Sweden – The US market is becoming increasingly important for e-scrap sorting technology specialist Refind of Sweden. The company has recently sold its latest innovation to recycler Battery Solutions, making it ‘the first US-based company’ to invest in automated sorting and data collection technology to manage waste batteries.

For Refind, this represents ‘an important first step into the US market with a customer that shares our vision of sorting as an important driver for battery recycling’, comments the Swedish firm’s ceo Hans Eric Melin.

The Refind system sorts up to 1.1 tonnes of batteries per hour and will ‘significantly improve existing sorting capabilities’ employed by Battery Solutions, states the manufacturer. Batteries are identified by their visual characteristics and are then separated by air ejectors at a rate of more than 10 batteries per second.

According to Refind, the system increases efficiency and reduces costs while also collecting detailed data about the batteries, including brand, model, size and age. This information provides a ‘broader insight and knowledge into the multibillion-dollar US battery market’, it contends.

For Battery Solutions, the investment is ‘well aligned with our strategy to enhance our leadership in sorting and treating batteries while exploring new insights from the collected data’, says ceo Thomas Bjarnemark. ‘It is particularly important as more states and countries realise the environmental and economic benefits of collecting and recycling batteries, especially alkaline, for which Battery Solutions is the leader in the US.’