Battery materials firm Ascend Elements plans to invest $310 million in Phase 1— and up to $1 billion over several possible phases— to build a lithium-ion battery materials facility in the US.
The facility in Kentucky will be known as “Apex 1” and use the US firm’s Hydro-to-Cathode™ direct precursor synthesis process technology to recycle black mass into lithium-ion battery precursor and cathode active material.
The plant is expected to produce enough material for 250,000 electric vehicles per year.
Groundbreaking on the facility is due in Q4.
Apex 1 will feature onsite chemical recycling capabilities and a wastewater treatment plant.
Hydro-to-Cathode battery recycling
Ascend revealed its Hydro-to-Cathode technology in April.
By engineering the composition and microstructure of lithium-ion cathode particles during the direct precursor synthesis phase of the process, Ascend says it can deliver custom-made battery materials to precise customer specifications.
The firm says it can break down a 10-year-old, first-generation EV battery to an aqueous solution containing lithium, nickel and cobalt atoms, and then rearrange those atoms into cathode active materials from NMC 811 to NMCA or any other lithium-ion battery chemistry.
