As we move away from fossil fuels and embrace sustainable sources, we will inevitably need more batteries to store energy. However, these batteries pose another challenge to our environment. They contain toxic chemicals, and cannot be simply discarded in landfills. Instead, we need to properly recycle them. Fortunately, there are many startups doing exactly this.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the top 5 battery recyclers in 2023.
- Redwood Materials
- Aqua Metals
- Cirba Solutions
- Li-Cycle
- Princeton NuEnergy
Used batteries often contain a lot of useful metals including copper, aluminium, cobalt, nickel and rare earths. To extract these useful materials, used batteries are being subjected to a couple of complicated industrial processes including deactivation, disassembly, mechanical processes, electrolyte recovery, hydrometallurgical processes and pyrometallurgical processes. In the case of lithium-ion battery cells, approximately 25% to 96% of the materials can be recycled.
What are the Top 5 Battery Recyclers in 2023?
My top picks are Redwood Materials, Aqua Metals, Cirba Solutions, Li-Cycle and Princeton NuEnergy.
1. Redwood Materials
Previously, Redwood Materials has featured in our Top 5 Climate Tech Unicorns. Redwood Materials is founded by J.B. Straubel, who was a co-founder and the CTO at Tesla. The company is based in the USA, and has a valuation of $3.7 billion as of September 2022. They plan to produce 100 GWh of materials to produce more than one million EVs a year by 2025 with their Battery Materials Campus 1.
Visit their website for more information.
2. Aqua Metals
Aqua Metals has a patented AquaRefining technology that is a room-temperature, closed-loop, water-based process that is clean and cost-efficient. Using this commercialized technology, lead can be recovered and recycled from batteries. Their first licensed AquaRefinery is being established in Taiwan.
Visit their website for more information.
3. Cirba Solutions
Cirba Solutions combines the expertise and experience of three battery recycling companies namely Battery Solutions, Retriev Technologies & Heritage Battery Recycling to create the largest and most experienced lithium & cross-chemistry battery management and materials team.
They provide a comprehensive and safe battery recycling experience that includes battery identification and consulting, EV packaging for transport, safe damaged lithium-ion battery packaging and transport and on-site services.
Visit their website for more information.
4. Li-Cycle
As you can tell from its name, Li-Cycle is a battery recycler that focuses solely on recovering critical materials from lithium-ion batteries. To do this, they use their proprietary Spoke & Hub Technologies which is a combination of safe mechanical size reduction and hydrometallurgical resource recovery.
Specifically, the Spoke Technology transforms lithium-ion batteries from a charged state to an inert product with minimal solid and liquid waste. The Hub Technology processes cathode and anode materials into battery grade end-products like lithium, nickel and cobalt for reuse in lithium-ion battery production or other applications.
Their patented technology allows for the safe processing of all lithium-ion batteries without any landfill waste, minimal GHGs, and reduction of CO2 emissions.
Visit their website for more information.
5. Princeton NuEnergy
Prince NuEnergy uses its novel Low-temperature Plasma-assisted Separation Process (LPAS) technology to deliver a cost-efficient, environmentally-friendly lithium-ion battery recycling solution to reduce global GHG emissions. With this process, cathode materials from aged lithium-ion batteries can be sorted, purified and repaired without completely breaking down the chemical compounds, which significantly reduces energy and chemical consumption compared to current industrial processes. The LPAS approach offers systematic advantages in costs, energy efficiency, and environmental protection.
Visit their website for more information.
Summary
Battery recycling is certainly an instrumental part in the circular economy. With proper and safe battery recycling, we can safely reduce our carbon footprint while making sure discarded batteries do not pollute the environment.