Polish-American Collaboration in Electric Vehicle Battery Recycling

US-based Ascend Elements and Polish Elemental Strategic Metals have formed AE Elemental, a joint venture in Poland. The new firm is intended to own and operate an advanced Li-ion EV battery recycling facility in Zawiercie (Poland).

Furthermore, the partners plan to build a plant in central Germany. As stated, the companies will jointly own (50/50) and operate a newly constructed electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling facility in Zawiercie, Poland. “The state-of-the-art facility will disassemble, discharge and shred EV batteries to produce black mass, which can be used to make new engineered EV battery materials, including cathode active material (CAM) and cathode precursor (pCAM),” the press release said. The facility would recycle up to 12,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 28,000 EV batteries annually. “Both JV partners agreed to jointly invest in large-scale lithium extraction from black mass. Lithium extraction capabilities processing up to 20,000 metric tons of black mass per year will begin construction in fall 2024 to be operational in 2026.” Additionally, the companies plan to build a new, state-of-the-art EV battery recycling facility in central Germany. As specified by the information, it will be able to recycle up to 25,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 58,000 EVs annually.

About the partners
Elemental Strategic Metals is a member of Elemental Group and operates a large multi-metal extraction facility in Poland focused on recovering battery metals and platinum group metals. Currently, Elemental Group has subsidiaries in 35 countries on three continents (Europe, Asia and North America). Ascend Elements is a provider of sustainable, closed-loop battery material solutions. According to the company’s homepage, its patented Hydro-to-Cathode direct precursor synthesis process simplifies recycling and transforms old batteries into sustainable battery materials “that rival or surpass the performance of new”. The technique would leach out impurities, keeping the valuable metals in solution and eliminating multiple steps in the recycling flow.

ascendelements.com, elementalsm.pl/en/

(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2024, Page 12, Photo: Ascend Elements)