Aqua Metals successfully recovers nickel via AquaRefining pilot

Aqua Metals Inc., a Reno, Nevada-based lithium-ion battery recycling company, has successfully recovered high-purity nickel from lithium battery black mass using its proprietary Li AquaRefining process, which uses electricity, and without a polluting smelter or the significant chemical waste typical in recycling.   

Aqua Metals’ Li AquaRefining technology recovers nickel and other valuable metals using electroplating in a closed-loop, eliminating the need for energy-intensive chemical processes that increase the cost and the resulting pollution of recycling. Nickel is an essential resource in the global push for electrification and clean energy technologies, and often makes up a substantial portion of the cost of electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems.   

“Aqua Metals continues to drive clean battery recycling forward, and recovering high purity nickel without a polluting smelter or train loads of one-time-use chemicals and costly waste streams is a landmark achievement for the industry,” says Steve Cotton, president and CEO of Aqua Metals. “Our modular recycling pilot is proving our vision for low-cost, sustainable lithium battery recycling and the ability to rapidly scale our novel solution to meet the surging demand for the domestic minerals essential to battery manufacturing.”  

Aqua Metals says its Li AquaRefining pilot is now the only operational electro-hydrometallurgy lithium battery recycling facility in North America.   

Current commercial lithium battery recycling methods use an energy-intensive smelting process that involves high temperatures, produces toxic fumes that must be mitigated and is unable to recover usable lithium or manganese. Proposed hydrometallurgy recycling consumes tons of hazardous chemicals, producing landfill waste and significant environmental impact from the production and transport of the one-time-use chemicals, according to the company.  

“Cost-effective and sustainable battery recycling cannot be achieved if each ton recovered requires multiple tons of chemicals and results in tons of waste and pollution,” says Ben Taecker, chief engineering and operations officer at Aqua Metals. “Using AquaRefining we can eliminate these hazards, which creates a safer work environment, minimizes transport of chemicals and demonstrates our commitment to equitable and responsible recycling that benefits our community.”  

Aqua Metals is currently scaling operations at its Li AquaRefining pilot facility, located in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, and is ramping up production of high-value products like pure nickel, copper and lithium hydroxide. Aqua Metals also recently announced the recovery of high-purity lithium hydroxide and copper from black mass.  

The company recently announced plans for the development of an integrated clean metal recycling campus and is currently commissioning commercial recycling facility capable of recycling 3,000 tons annually of batteries on the five-acre site as the first phase of the expansion.