Photo | Erika Sidor
Eric Gratz
December 10, 2024
Ascend Elements to start production at $43M Georgia EV battery recycling facility in 2025
Photo | Courtesy of Ascend Elements
Raw materials derived from recycled batteries at an Ascend Elements facility.
Westborough-based Ascend Elements plans on starting production of lithium carbonate recycled from discarded lithium-ion batteries at its $43-million Georgia facility in 2025, a move the company says will increase by 60% national production of the much-needed material for electric vehicles and other purposes.
Ascend plans on producing up to 3,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate per year at the facility, with its new plant in Covington, Georgia being the first commercial-scale lithium carbonate recycler in the country, according to a Tuesday press release. The only other current source for the material is a mining operation in Nevada.
“This is the first new, domestic source of lithium carbonate in the 21st century,” Eric Gratz, co-founder and chief technology officer of Ascend Elements, said in the press release. “This new domestic supply of a critical battery material will help U.S. industries meet growing demand while avoiding the possibility of tariffs on imported materials.”
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Lithium is used to make batteries used in applications ranging from electric vehicles to grid-scale energy storage. Global demand for the material is expected to climb from its current figure of 101 kilotons to 531 kilotons by 2030, with expected supplies from announced mining projects failing to meet expected demand, according to the International Energy Agency.
Ascend says its recycling technology produces fewer CO2 emissions than existing extraction methods.
“Our current process of lithium extraction from used lithium-ion batteries is about 86% less carbon-intensive compared to spodumene mining and 37% less carbon-intensive compared to Chilean brine extraction,” Gratz said, referencing two methods of existing lithium carbonate production.
Ascend announced its Georgia plant in 2022 and expanded to Europe with the September opening of a facility in Poland, which it jointly runs with Poland-based Elemental Strategic Materials.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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