US recycling firm Redwood Materials is set to expand in to Europe by increasing the collection of end-of-life batteries for the recycling of materials to make anode and cathode products.
The company— headed by Tesla co-founder and its former CTO Jeffrey Straubel— will build hydromet recycling operations to feed production of copper foil and cathode active material sites in Europe.
To achieve its goal, the firm has appointed Dirk Demuth (SVP of European Operations) and Odd-Even Bustnes (who joined Redwood last year as VP of Business Development, Europe).
The duo will focus on expanding the company’s international team, growing operations and establishing partnerships with automakers and battery cell manufactures in the EU.
The company will take end-of-life batteries, break them down to recover nickel, copper, cobalt, and lithium and rebuild those metals into cathode and anode products.
Nevada recycling plant
Redwood expects to complete its anode copper foil facility at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center— the Nevada location that is home to Tesla’s Gigafactory 1— and begin producing and delivering product to customers in the first half of this year.
The company plans to ramp copper foil production to 100GWh of product annually.
Additionally, the Tahoe-Reno site will house its hydrometallurgy recycling operations, to feed copper from recycled lithium-ion batteries directly into copper foil production in a closed-loop.
Initially, Redwood will source other US recycled copper production while it builds its recoved copper supply chain.
A Redwood statement read: “Nearly all anode copper foil (and cathode) production globally happens in Asia.
“This means that battery materials must travel tens of thousands of miles before they make their way into a final product, contributing significantly to the environmental impact and cost of battery production.
“By localising copper foil in the US, we’ll make this product more sustainable while driving down costs and supply chain risks.”
Panasonic will be the first partners who expect to source Redwood’s copper foil.
