Battery recycler Aqua Metals has demonstrated the restoration of high-purity lithium hydroxide from lithium-ion battery black mass on the firm’s Li AquaRefining recycling facility in Nevada.
“The manufacturing and availability of the primary recycled lithium hydroxide at scale will assist shut the availability chain loop for important battery metals in America, paving the way in which for a extra sustainable, environment friendly battery manufacturing trade,” says the corporate. “The speedy restoration of lithium hydroxide additionally improves the economics of recycling superior battery chemistries like lithium iron phosphate (LFP), wherein lithium makes up many of the precious materials, not like nickel and cobalt-based batteries.”
Aqua Metals’ Li AquaRefining pilot facility is a closed-loop recycling system that’s designed to recuperate all of the important assets contained in spent batteries primarily utilizing electrical energy, with out the polluting furnaces or intensive chemical processes typical of recycling. Aqua Metals plans to supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide instantly from black mass utilizing its patent-pending, regenerative electro-hydrometallurgy course of.
The pilot facility is designed to recuperate lithium hydroxide and manganese dioxide, in addition to pure cobalt, nickel, and copper metals, from spent lithium-ion batteries, and offers the design foundation for the corporate’s 10,000-ton-per-year recycling campus, which is deliberate for phased growth beginning later this 12 months.
“We consider Li AquaRefining is now the one confirmed battery recycling expertise that may produce lithium hydroxide at scale—avoiding the necessity for added pricey and polluting refinement,” mentioned CEO and President Steve Cotton. “This new functionality can have a profound influence on the lithium battery trade in North America. Our sustainably recycled lithium may help guarantee a strong provide of important metals to satisfy the Inflation Discount Act’s bold targets for home content material, and allows us to share samples and advance our discussions with potential companions in battery and cathode manufacturing.”
“Efficiently scaling up our distinctive lithium hydroxide restoration course of is a significant technical milestone for the trade, heralding an period of low-emissions, round provide of important battery metals produced from home assets,” mentioned Chief Engineering and Operations Officer Ben Taecker. “Producing giant portions of recycled feedstock is new to battery manufacturing, and our capability to mix the recycling and refining of lithium into one course of avoids pointless waste streams, lowers total prices and improves provide chain effectivity.”
Supply: Aqua Metals
