Orbia is serving as a development partner to Ascend Elements to scale the company’s technology for commercial production and has also backed several investment rounds.
Sales of plug-in electric vehicles are expected to grow at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2030, thereby making Ascend Elements’ technology a potential game-changer in the battery recycling and sustainable materials spaces. The company’s Hydro-to-Anode process delivers yeilds of over 99.9 percent pure graphite with energy capacity and cycle life on par with virgin battery-grade graphite anode material. It has the additional benefit of extending recycling and manufacturing throughput beyond cathode active materials to anode materials as well. This innovation dramatically increases the value of every lithium-ion battery recycled using the Ascend Elements process.
“With this advancement, we just made the case for battery recycling a lot more compelling” said Michael O’Kronley, Chief Executive Officer of Ascend Elements. “Increasing the value of the extracted materials improves the economics of recycling, which creates an incentive for even more recycling. The ability to recover graphite for use in batteries helps solve another critical material challenge in the battery supply chain and minimizes the need for mining new materials.”
High-purity graphite is a mineral included on the United States critical minerals list, according to US Executive Order 13953. To lessen reliance on foreign entities, US material manufacturing and recycling companies are charged with making this mineral more available within the North American supply chain. Other minerals on the list include lithium and cobalt; both of which are reclaimed in the Ascend Elements recycling and manufacturing processes. Ascend Elements is currently producing battery-grade graphite in its facility located in Westborough, Massachusetts.
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