Ascend Elements opens Georgia battery recycling facility

Lithium-ion battery recycler Ascend Elements, Westborough, Massachusetts, recently celebrated the grand opening of its first commercial-scale recycling facility in Covington, Georgia. The company says the $50 million Base 1 facility is the largest of its type in North America.

The 150,000-square-foot facility began partial operations in August 2022 and now has an annual capacity to process 30,000 metric tons of used lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap—equal to 70,000 electric vehicle batteries—per year.

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“This facility is an important part of America’s EV battery infrastructure, and this is just the start,” Ascend Elements CEO Mike O’Kronley says. “As an industry, we need to continue building our closed-loop battery materials supply chain to make electric vehicle batteries cleaner and more sustainable.”

Ascend Elements says it recovers 98 percent of the critical battery metals in used electric vehicle batteries and gigafactory manufacturing scrap. By recycling used lithium-ion batteries and scrap with its patented Hydro-to-Cathode process, the company says it can reduce the carbon footprint of new electric vehicle battery cathode materials by up to 90 percent.

The Hydro-to-Cathode direct precursor synthesis process produces sustainably engineered cathode precursor (pCAM) and cathode active materials (CAM).

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The new facility is powered by renewable energy and features on-site wastewater recycling and treatment systems. It currently employs about 100 team members, and the company says it plans to increase its headcount to 185 by 2024.