AE Elemental opens lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Poland

AE Elemental, a joint venture between Ascend Elements, headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts,  and Elemental Strategic Metals, based in Poland, hosted the grand opening of its first commercial-scale electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling facility in Zawiercie, Poland, Sept. 19. Dozens of business and community leaders from Europe and North America attended the opening ceremony and toured the state-of-the-art facility.

The facility can process 12,000 metric tons of used lithium-ion batteries annually, which equates to about 28,000 EV battery packs. AE Elemental will disassemble, discharge and shred EV batteries to produce black mass, which can be used to make engineered EV battery materials, including cathode active material (CAM) and cathode precursor (pCAM).

Commercial-scale lithium extraction capabilities will be added to the new facility this fall to be operational by 2026.

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In the European Union (EU), new batteries must contain a minimum amount of recycled content by 2030. In addition to helping manufacturers meet this requirement, lithium-ion battery recycling keeps hazardous battery materials out of landfills while minimizing the environmental impacts of nickel, cobalt and lithium mining.

“We have come significantly closer to becoming a global leader in the market of recycling materials necessary to produce EV batteries,” Elemental Strategic Metals CEO Michal Zygmunt said at the grand opening. “As part of our contribution to the joint venture with a reputable American partner, we make available a state-of-the-art industrial downstream processing facility in Zawiercie and one of the most developed networks of waste collection points in Europe with broad knowledge and experience in the field of recycling and waste logistics.”

“This is a significant milestone for Ascend Elements, representing our first commercial-scale battery recycling facility in Europe,” Ascend Elements CEO Mike O'Kronley added. “We’re pleased to be working closely with Elemental Strategic Metals in this beautiful facility. 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.”

Beyond Poland, AE Elemental, which is equally owned by Ascend Elements and Elemental Strategic Metals, plans to build Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Germany. That facility will have the capacity to recycle up to 25,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 58,000 EVs annually.

Speaking during the Battery & Critical Metals Recycling Conference this June in Atlanta, O’Kronley talked about the role partnerships such as this one will play in expanding lithium-ion battery recycling.

“I think in this industry, to achieve the things that we want to achieve, we’re going to be seeing a lot more partnerships," he said. "It won’t just be one company standing alone. It takes a lot of capital and it’s hard to do that all on your own.”