Elemental Strategic Metals and Ascend Elements announced the formation of AE Elemental, a new joint venture. Together, the companies will jointly own (50/50) and operate a newly constructed, best-in-class electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling facility in Zawiercie, Poland.
This 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 facility can recycle up to 12,000 metric tons of batteries per year or about 28,000 EV batteries annually.
“The AE Elemental JV is a significant milestone for Ascend Elements, representing our first commercial-scale battery recycling facility in Europe,” said Mike O’Kronley, CEO of Ascend Elements, which is based in Westborough, Massachusetts. “Expanding into Europe will allow us to better service our customers locally and help the industry comply with new EU rules requiring recycled material in new batteries. This is a perfect time to expand our operations.”
Both JV partners agreed to 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 begin building a new, state-of-the-art EV battery recycling facility in central Germany. The AE Elemental facility in Germany will have the capacity to recycle up to 25,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 58,000 EVs annually.
Filed Under: Batteries, Technology News