Ascend Elements’ JV AE Elemental opens li-ion battery recycling facility in Poland

AE Elemental, a joint venture of U.S.-based Ascend Elements and Poland-based Elemental Strategic Metals, celebrated the grand opening of its first commercial-scale EV battery recycling facility.

Located in Zawiercie, Poland, the new facility can process 12,000 metric tons of used Li-ion batteries each year – or approximately 28,000 EV battery packs annually – making it one of the largest battery recycling facilities in Europe. Dozens of business and community leaders from Europe and North America attended the opening ceremony and toured the state-of-the-art facility.

As demand for electric vehicles continues to grow, lithium-ion battery recycling is becoming an increasingly important part of the EV battery materials supply chain. In the European Union (EU), new batteries will be required to contain a minimum amount of recycled content by 2030. Lithium-ion battery recycling also keeps hazardous battery materials out of landfills while minimizing the environmental impacts associated with nickel, cobalt, and lithium mining.

The company reports that the AE Elemental facility will disassemble, discharge, and shred EV batteries to produce black mass, which can be used to make new engineered EV battery materials, including cathode active material (CAM) and cathode precursor (pCAM). Commercial-scale lithium extraction capabilities will be added to the new facility in Fall 2024 to be operational by 2026.

The company also reports that beyond Poland, the joint venture is planning to build Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Germany. The planned AE Elemental facility in Germany will have the capacity to recycle up to 25,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 58,000 EVs annually.