Status of Commercial Scale Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling in the United States
In an article from EV Magazine, a list of 10 lithium-ion recyclers was presented. If you didn’t know better, you might assume that all 10 were producing battery-grade material from 100 percent recycled materials and that the domestic supply chain in the United States was already established and thriving. However, that’s far from accurate. Not a single entity in the United States is fully operational—meaning they are taking end-of-life batteries and producing battery-grade materials—outside of a few select OEMs like Tesla. Even then, the OEMs are restricted to accessing only their own production scrap and waste or recovered end-of-life (EOL) batteries, not the full range of recyclable material available across the United States.
First, let’s break down what a circular economy actually is, what lithium-ion battery recycling involves, and what it will be used for in both the short and long term.
A simple starting point: what is a material-based energy infrastructure? It’s an energy system that doesn’t rely on burning fuel to generate electricity. However, there’s an important distinction between electricity and energy worth examining here. Electricity is the direct power output—think of the abundant electricity you’re used to, whether from renewables or fossil fuels, that can charge a battery or run the device you’re reading this on. Energy, however, in this context, refers to the thermal output that drives industrial processes, such as smelting metals or refining chemicals to build that battery.
Today, while renewables excel at producing electricity, hydrocarbons—like coal, oil, or gas—remain the backbone for thermal energy, offering a cost-effective, though not environmentally ideal, solution due to their high heat output and availability. Advances are underway to shift this balance, with electric furnaces and plasma technologies emerging to replace hydrocarbon-fueled processes. But for now, hydrocarbons are typically the cheapest and most practical option for industrial energy needs.
This reliance on materials—whether as fuel for consumption or minerals needed to manufacture equipment like solar panels or batteries—sets the stage for a different approaches. Unlike a linear economy, where hydrocarbons are extracted, refined, and consumed, a circular, material-based system mines materials, uses them to create equipment for generating electricity and for storage of that electricity; then recycles those materials at the end of the equipment’s service life to produce the next generation of technology. This shifts toward a “mine once” scenario, where, if managed effectively, materials could be reused almost indefinitely.
So, what does recycling a lithium-ion battery involve? It begins with collecting end-of-life batteries, often from EVs, electronics, or industrial sources, which arrive in various conditions—some intact, others damaged. The process typically starts with discharging the batteries to a safe voltage, followed by manual or automated disassembly to separate components like casings and wiring. The battery cells are then shredded into smaller pieces, producing a mix of metals, plastics, and a powdery substance called black mass, which contains valuable elements like lithium, nickel, and cobalt.
Separation techniques such as magnetic sorting, density-based methods, or chemical leaching extract these materials. Some recyclers use hydrometallurgy, treating the black mass with acids to recover battery-grade metals, while others employ pyrometallurgy, smelting entire batteries at high temperatures to produce metal alloys and a slag that contains lithium. Hydrometallurgy is more precise but costly due to the chemicals and agents involved, while pyrometallurgy is simpler but energy-intensive and has a much lower recovery rate for lithium. Materials like graphite can also be destroyed in the process.
The material produced by recycling lithium-ion batteries is classified as a secondary resource—material reclaimed from previous use. In the short term, it can also function as a quasi-primary resource for battery materials in the United States. Here’s why: most batteries recycled today were made from materials sourced outside the United States, and often the cells weren’t manufactured domestically either. While recycling in a mature supply chain keeps materials circulating, for now, it will help bridge the supply gap until primary domestic resources are fully developed.
Lithium-ion battery recyclers aim to keep materials within the United States, preventing their export to countries like China, which relies heavily on imported primary materials. China benefits from nations like the U.S., where the infrastructure to fully utilize secondary resources remains underdeveloped, leaving significant potential untapped.
At its core, recycling serves as a mechanism to prevent material loss. Beyond that, it strengthens domestic supply chains by reducing reliance on foreign resources and making better use of materials already present in the U.S. economy.
In this article, I’ve outlined what each company actually does—and what they plan to do. I’m starting with American Battery Technology Company, to keep that section free, For the rest consider becoming a paid subscriber to support my work and access the full scope of my research.
Ecobat Solutions
Li-cycle Holdings
Cirba Solutions
Ascend Elements
Redwood Materials
I have included several companies that are not operational in the United States, but have publicly stated they have plans to expand into the states.
Lithion Technologies
EcoNiLi Battery, Inc.
Electra Battery Metals
Critical Minerals Recovery (CMR) is also listed as a cautionary tale of a company that seems to have skirted regulations, leading to a facility fire not once but three times.
Disclaimer: All information listed below is based on publicly available documents. Best efforts were made to verify the recycling platforms using data from patents and public records; however, some processes are proprietary. Where direct data was unavailable, analysis was conducted using environmental documents such as emissions tests and other available information to assess the likely process.
American Battery Technology Company
CEO: Ryan Melsert
Employees: 100
Business Model: Primary Lithium Resource and Cradle-to-Gate Lithium-ion Battery Recycler
Current Model: Black Mass Producer/Lithium Intermediate
Corporate History:
American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) was incorporated on October 6, 2011, in Nevada as Oroplata Resources, Inc., initially focused on mineral exploration. Doug Cole became CEO in December 2016, redirecting it toward battery metals. In 2019, Ryan Melsert, a former Tesla engineer, joined as Chief Technology Officer and shifted the company’s focus to lithium-ion battery recycling and extraction, becoming CEO on August 30, 2021. It rebranded from American Battery Metals Corporation to ABTC in August 2021 and moved from the OTC (ticker ABML) to NASDAQ (ticker ABAT) on September 21, 2023. Based in Reno, Nevada, ABTC now targets sustainable battery material solutions.
Facility:
ABTC operates a 137,000-square-foot lithium-ion battery recycling facility in McCarran, Nevada, within the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. Operational since October 2023, it has a design capacity of 20,000 metric tons of battery feedstock annually but currently at the time of this report processes about 1,000 tons per year, producing black mass and a lithium intermediate. Acquired in March 2023, the facility is ramping up black mass production, with no announced timeline for Phase 2, the hydrometallurgical stage intended to yield battery-grade sulfates and lithium hydroxide monohydrate.
Recycling Platform:
ABTC recycles lithium-ion batteries using a process that begins in a low-pressure mill/shredder, where grinding triggers thermal runaway a rapid, exothermic reaction inside the batteries. This reaction, fueled by the decomposition of electrolytes and cathode materials, generates heat, breaking the bonds that hold the battery together without requiring an external heat source.
Hydrolysis with sulfuric acid then converts lithium compounds, such as lithium carbonate, into water-soluble lithium sulfate. This sulfate is further processed into lithium hydroxide via membrane electrodialysis, with the acid being recycled for efficiency.
The remaining material is shredded in granulators, and a flip-flow screen separates the black mass from the low value materials, then the black mass is sent to a filter press to remove liquids. These liquids are filtered to recover residual lithium or battery metals.
The resulting lithium-depleted, low-impurity black mass undergoes leaching with sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer. Solvent extraction is then used to isolate cobalt, nickel, and manganese sulfate solutions.
Meanwhile, copper, aluminum, iron, and plastics are further sorted using float sinks, magnetic separators, and densimetric tables for separate recovery.
Current Status:
In its most recent earnings, the company reported revenue of $334,000, while incurring a cash cost of goods sold amounting to $2.1 million. This results in a gross profit of -$1,766,000, reflecting a significant loss. The gross margin stands at approximately -528.74%, highlighting that costs vastly outpace revenue, possibly due to scaling efforts or inefficiencies. The current capacity of their 24/7 black mass production remains unclear, making it tricky to pinpoint the full financial picture.
Partners: Apart from academic and development partners, the only publicly disclosed feedstock partnership is with BASF (specifics remain unknown).
Funding:
Currently for recycling, the company has a $20 million ($10 million cost-share) grant for the development of 3 novel recycling techniques to be added to their current platform. These include:
1. Electrolyte recovery and distillation
2. Non-terminal crystallization of lithium hydroxide monohydrate
3. Graphite recovery and regeneration
They also have negotiated a $123 million DOE grant (listed obligated amount on USASpending.gov) for a 100,000-ton feedstock per year lithium-ion battery recycling plant in South Carolina. The status of the grant and project is unknown outside of a full sticker price of $347 million.
The company has also received a federal tax credit from Section 48C for $20 million, which can be used to fund the construction and operations of its Nevada lithium-ion battery recycling facility. Another tax credit from Section 48C, amounting to $40.5 million, supports the design and construction of its second U.S. battery recycling facility.
In October 2021, a $2 million grant from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy with a 75% cost-share, launched a 30-month project. It aims to prove recycled battery materials can meet or exceed industry standards while demonstrating a cost-per-kWh reduction in battery manufacturing. Collaborating with BASF and C4V, the initiative focuses on creating a sustainable, cost-efficient domestic supply chain for electric vehicle batteries using recycled metals.