The rapid growth of electric vehicles has a significant impact on the demand for Li-ion batteries. By 2030, it is anticipated that 140 million electric vehicles will be on the roads worldwide, while 11 million metric tons of Li-ion batteries will reach the end of their service lives. Currently, most used Li-ion batteries are discharged in landfills, and less than 5% of batteries are recycled. Several companies are delivering their efforts to recycle lithium batteries.
Ascend Elements
Ascend Elements (formerly known as Battery Resourcers) synthesizes cathode materials of Li-ion batteries directly from recycled components using a simple method involving uniform-phase precipitation as the starting material. The method is more efficient than conventional Li-battery recycling technologies which separate Ni, Mn, and Co and then recombine them to create cathode materials.
Ascend Elements has raised a total of $91.9M in funding over 7 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Sep 21, 2021 from a Venture – Series Unknown round. Ascend Elements is funded by 12 investors. At One Ventures and Orbia Ventures are the most recent investors.
Mike O’Kronley is CEO. Diran Apelian, Eric Gratz, and Yan Wang are Co-Founders.
Redwood Materials
Redwood Materials develops a lithium-ion battery recycling technology that generates high-concentration lithium composites (lithium concentrates) which are further leached to extract lithium compounds that can be returned to the supply chain, particularly battery grade materials.
Redwood Materials has raised a total of $792M in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Sep 22, 2021 from a Corporate Round. Redwood Materials is funded by 13 investors. Ford Motor and Valor Equity Partners are the most recent investors.
JB Straubel is Co-Founder and CEO.
Green Li-ion
Green Li-ion’s recycling system can remove most impurities from black mass and extract graphite and cathode metal salts at a high purity over 99% that can be used for cathode fabrication. The entire recycling process takes 12 to 14 hours, including processes of sulfuric acid leaching, impurity removing, cathode precipitation, and lithium extraction. The final discharge is a slightly saline solution that is not harmful to the environment.
Green Li-ion has raised a total of $15M in funding over 3 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 27, 2022 from a Series A round. Green Li-ion is funded by 12 investors. EDP Ventures and GS Holdings are the most recent investors.
Leon Farrant is Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder.
Lithion Recycling
Lithion Recycling provides a hydrometallurgy-based technology that recovers 95% of lithium-ion battery components and regenerates high-purity materials that can be used in the production of new rechargeable batteries.
Lithion Recycling has raised a total of $102.8M in funding over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 24, 2022 from a Series A round. Lithion Recycling is funded by 3 investors. Fondaction and IMM Investment are the most recent investors.
Benoit Couture is Founder and president.
Li-Cycle
Li-Cycle developed Spoke-Hub recycling technologies for Li-ion batteries. The Spoke technology involves the mechanical reduction in size of incoming used batteries in a safe manner. Hub technology involves the hydrometallurgical recycling and resource recovery methods designed specifically for recycling lithium-ion batteries. Li-Cycle’s Spoke-Hub technology can recycle at least 95% of all materials found in used Li-ion batteries.
Li-Cycle has raised a total of $667.7M in funding over 6 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on May 5, 2022 from a Post-IPO Debt round. Li-Cycle is registered under the ticker NYSE:LICY. Li-Cycle is funded by 9 investors. Glencore and LG Chem are the most recent investors.
Ajay Kochhar is Co-Founder, President & CEO. Tim Johnston is Co-Founder.
Princeton NuEnergy
Princeton NuEnergy developed a lithium ion battery recycling technology that combines a low-temperature plasma-assisted separation and purification process with a gas-phase material regeneration process. The technology enables sorting, plasma purification, and regeneration of aged cathode materials without completely destroying the compounds, and it drastically reduces energy and chemical consumption, recycling time, and costs in comparison to current industrial pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes.
Princeton NuEnergy has raised a total of $14M in funding over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on May 13, 2022 from a Seed round. Princeton NuEnergy is funded by 7 investors. Wistron Corporation and Technology Development Fund are the most recent investors.
Chao Yan is Founder. Xiaofang Yang is co-founder and CTO.
