(Credit: Pixabay)Battery Resourcers, a vertically integrated lithium-ion battery recycling and engineered materials company, will open a commercial-scale, lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Covington, Ga. When the 154,000-square-foot facility is fully operational in August 2022, it will be North America's largest battery recycling facility with capacity to process 30,000 metric tons of discarded lithium-ion batteries and scrap per year — returning battery grade lithium, cobalt and nickel back into the battery supply chain. As demand for electric vehicles (EVs) increases, industry analysts and the federal government agree the United States needs to build a sustainable battery recycling infrastructure. The opening of this facility will help meet that demand.
Battery Resourcers is investing $43 million in the facility. The site is strategically located near several EV manufacturing hubs and lithium-ion gigafactories.
Plans are already in motion to open an additional facility for precursor and cathode-active material production in 2023 using the company's patented Hydro-to-Cathode technology. Compared to mining and production of new materials, the Hydro-to-Cathode recycling process is 93% cleaner at a 59% lower cost. A recent study published in the scholarly journal, Joule, found recycled cathode from the Hydro-to-Cathode process outperforms new cathode materials in terms of cycle life by as much as 53%.
