US battery materials maker Ascend Elements and Orbia’s fluoroproduct business, Koura, are to explore joint commercialisation of graphite recycling technology. They said they will also discuss plans to build a graphite recycling facility in the US.
Ascend’s Hydro-to-Anode recycling technology is claimed to produce 99.9% pure graphite from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and battery manufacturing scrap.
Ascend Elements has been focusing on producing engineered cathode materials from recycled lithium-ion batteries, primarily cathode precursor and cathode active materials.
It said recovering graphite for use in batteries would improve the economics of battery recycling and minimise the need for mining.
Ascend Elements and Orbia Koura are in discussions to supply IRA-compliant, battery-grade graphite to several electric vehicle original equipment manufacturers and battery manufacturers.
Photo: Ascend Elements worker loads lithium-ion batteries
