RecycLiCo Battery Materials (formerly American Manganese), a battery materials company focused on the development of novel and environmentally friendly lithium-ion battery recycling and upcycling technologies, and its R&D partner Kemetco Research provided an operational update on the RecycLiCo hydrometallurgical demonstration plant in Vancouver, Canada.
Since its commissioning earlier this year, the Demo Plant has verified a 163% increase in actual leach processing capacity over the 500 kg/day planned capacity and 99% leach extraction efficiency of lithium-ion battery cathode waste material using RecycLiCo’s patented closed-loop process.
The company has since achieved similar success in recent impurity removal and co-precipitation stages of ongoing Demo Plant testing. The Demo Plant has now advanced to the next stage of the RecycLiCo patented process to demonstrate lithium recovery at demo-scale.
To serve a broader market and meet the needs of multiple potential partners, the company will continue testing at the Demo Plant with feedstock materials such as different cathode production scrap and black mass. At the same time, it will be expanding its offering of next-generation, battery-ready cathode precursor and lithium products to supplement RecycLiCo’s current lineup of products, which continue to be shipped to potential partners for advanced product qualification and assembly in battery cells.
Using RecycLiCo’s battery-ready material, C4V (earlier post) successfully assembled new battery cells and validated their performance. C4V is an intellectual property company that creates next-generation storage materials with expertise in electrode design and process development to fast-track Gigafactory deployment across the globe. C4V technology is foundational to the iM3NY gigafactory (earlier post) in Endicott, New York—the only Gigafactory across the globe with an ex-Asia supply chain.
C4V completed a phase 1 qualification study, in which RecycLiCo’s NMC811 (nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide) precursor cathode material, made from recycled and upcycled lithium-ion battery waste, was converted into a proprietary cathode composition by C4V’s supply chain partner, followed by cell production and performance evaluations by C4V.
As reported by C4V, the electrochemical and technical data achieved the benchmark specifications and performance. Test results also indicated that the specific capacity and stability of the battery cell are acceptable and that C4V approves the material as qualified.
The Demo Plant is a platform for further expansion and accelerating RecycLiCo’s commercialization strategy. Therefore, in parallel with the Demo Plant’s testing, an engineering study is being prepared for the design and construction of a commercial-scale plant that meets industry needs.