Battery recycling and manufacturing company Ascend Elements (formerly known as Battery Resourcers) is planning to open a battery recycling plant in Georgia by August of 2022, where it will recycle lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The company plans to invest $43 million in the 154,000-square-foot facility, which will be able to process 30,000 metric tons of discarded batteries and scrap per year. It selected the Covington, Georgia site due to the proximity of EV manufacturing hubs and battery factories.

By 2023, Ascend plans to open a facility to produce cathode active materials that will rely on the company’s patented Hydro-to-Cathode recycling technology. According to the company, Hydro-to-Cathode recycling technology, compared to mining and the production of new materials, is 93% cleaner at a 59% lower cost. Based on an article published in the journal Joule, the company says Hydro-to-Cathode has a 53% longer life cycle than new cathode materials.

Ascend plans to open more facilities in North America, Europe and Asia to process a total of up to 150,000 metric tons of lithium-ion battery materials per year.

“As an industry, we need to match the capacity of the gigafactories producing millions of batteries with our own ‘gigarecycling’ facilities that can recycle millions of batteries. Our Covington facility will be the largest in North America this summer, but we encourage development of recycling facilities even larger than this one. We all win when we prevent batteries from going to the landfill,” said Ascend Elements CEO and Director Michael O’Kronley.

Source: Ascend Elements