Princeton NuEnergy (PNE) has announced that its Advanced Black Mass (ABM™) battery recycling facility in Chester, South Carolina is now fully commissioned and operational.
This flagship site marks the first commercial-scale US facility capable of producing battery-grade cathode active materials – specifically NCM and LFP chemistries – from recycled feedstock. It demonstrates PNE’s ability to domestically regenerate critical battery minerals and manufacture high-purity materials at scale.
“In Chester, we demonstrate that the United States can lead in battery materials recovery and manufacturing – not years from now, but today,” stated Dr Chao Yan, PNE’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Our team’s execution has been exceptional, and this facility is our next major advancement in the battery supply chain space.”
The Chester battery recycling facility currently processes 5,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of manufacturing scrap using PNE’s proprietary ABM technology. The operation is fully permitted and compliant with federal and state environmental standards, and it follows strict SOPs to ensure safety, traceability, and material consistency.
With a recovery yield exceeding 97%, the facility produces high-value feedstock suitable for downstream battery manufacturing. Plans are in place to expand capacity to 15,000 tpa by 2026, with scalability up to 50,000 tpa to meet future market demand.
In addition to Chester, PNE operates a joint pilot battery recycling facility in McKinney, Texas to further develop its direct recycling technologies. The company is also building a national network for closed-loop battery material recovery and production. Its Materials Testing Center in Princeton, New Jersey – the largest in the US Northeast – provides third-party validation and downstream testing to accelerate domestic battery manufacturing.
Image: Engineers oversee advanced battery recycling operations at PNE’s Chester, SC facility. CreditL PRNewsfoto/Princeton NuEnergy.
