Recycling technology firm ACE Green Recycling has signed a 15-year agreement with natural resources firm Glencore for up to 100% of its production from ACE’s four planned lead-acid and lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling parks in the U.S., India and Thailand.
The deal will facilitate the development of a circular supply chain for high-demand materials.
The new parks are expected to be complete by 2024 and once operational, these plants are expected to cumulatively produce 1.6 million tons of recycled metals, including lead, lithium, nickel and cobalt.
"We are delighted to partner with Glencore and together contribute towards making global electrification sustainable," said Nishchay Chadha, co-founder and CEO of ACE. "To safeguard a greener future, we need to create sustainable and localized circular supply chain solutions to ensure these critical battery materials are available indefinitely."
"Our partnership with ACE furthers our objective of creating a leading, global circularity platform for battery metals. These recycling parks will not only provide a unique domestic, but also regional solution for furthering circularity in batteries – both high and low voltage. The partnership will also support our ambition to become a net zero total emissions (Scope 1,2,3) company by 2050," said Kunal Sinha, head of recycling at Glencore.
The first commercial LIB recycling facility is to begin operations in Ghaziabad, India this month. At this unit, the firm will recycle battery chemistries such as Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NCM), Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LCO) and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) to extract valuable battery materials. Another facility in Mundra is slated to come online in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The flagship plant in Texas, USA is to begin operations around the same time. The facilities are expected to process up to 100,000 tons of lead-acid batteries (LAB) and 20,000 tons of LIB annually by 2025.
"Our modular and battery chemistry agnostic recycling technology platform offers the flexibility to customize our solutions for both developed and developing markets. Along with positive ESG components and cost competitiveness, ACE's battery recycling solutions provide real-world commercial and social benefits,” Vipin Tyagi, Ph.D., ACE's other co-founder and chief technology officer, said in a statement.
A report by Emergen Research anticipates that the global battery recycling market will grow by an average 5.3 percent compound annual growth rate through the rest of the decade. Since that revenue totaled about $17.8 billion annually last year, it could reach almost $30 billion per year by 2030.
ARC Green Recycling is backed by investment from Circulate Capital.
