American Battery ramps up lithium-ion battery recycling facility

American Battery Technology Company has achieved a significant milestone by demonstrating a fixed duration operation of its commercial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility at a steady-state throughput of greater than 115% of its maximum design rate. At full production capacity, this facility was initially designed to nominally process 20,000 metric tonnes per year of battery feedstock, and surpassing this design rate demonstrates the impact of the continued process enhancements that have been implemented in the commissioning of the facility. American Battery Technology Company employees load lithium-ion batteries for processing at its recycling plant in Nevada. The company is making significant advancements in commercializing its internally-developed, first-of-kind, battery recycling technologies for recovery of battery materials with high yields, low cost, and a low environmental footprint. The ABTC recycling facility utilizes a first-of-kind integrated set of recycling processes based on a strategic de-manufacturing approach that utilizes a deconstruction process combined with a targeted selective hydrometallurgical process. This system is agnostic to feedstock form factors and can process lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap of a variety of sizes and shapes, and with a wide range of internal chemistries. The first phase of the recycling process produces recycled products that includes copper, aluminum, steel, a lithium intermediate, and a black mass intermediate material, and the integrated second phase further refines these materials into battery grade nickel sulfate, cobalt sulfate, manganese sulfate, and lithium hydroxide. The company is already in the process of implementing the second phase of this integrated recycling facility, where the lithium intermediate from its first phase process will be further refined into a battery grade lithium hydroxide product, and the black mass intermediate material will be further refined into battery grade nickel, cobalt, manganese, and lithium hydroxide products.