Aqua Metals, LiNiCo partner to recycle lithium-ion batteries

Aqua Metals Inc., McCarran, Nevada, has signed a collaboration agreement with LiNiCo Corp., a cleantech innovator and aggregator focused on closed-loop lithium-ion battery recycling. The companies will process lithium-ion battery black mass into high-quality metals.

Earlier this year, Aqua Metals invested $2 million, paid in Aqua Metals stock shares, for a 10 percent ownership stake in LiNiCo Corp. as part of the company’s strategy to apply AquaRefining intellectual property to lithium-ion battery recycling.

According to a news release from Aqua Metals, the new agreement strengthens both companies’ expansion into lithium-ion battery recycling and builds on their commitment to advance best-in-class technologies designed to recycle lithium-ion batteries cost-effectively and sustainably.

The two companies plan to source necessary lithium-ion feedstock from battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life cells from various sources, including electric vehicle battery suppliers interested in participating in the eco-network the two companies announced earlier this year. LiNiCo will process feedstock into high-quality black mass using its proprietary process, and the resulting black mass will be used as input feedstock for Aqua Metals’ AquaRefining pilot cells to create high-purity metals, such as nickel, cobalt, copper and other compounds.

Aqua Metals says its AquaRefining technology is a room-temperature, water-based process that is nonpolluting and uses an electroplating process that builds metal by plating one atom at a time. The approach for multimetal recovery for lithium-ion battery recycling is designed to recover a higher percentage of metals in a higher quality form.

“With the shift to the sustainable clean energy economy, we are facing a global challenge with the need to recycle an estimated 15 million [metric tons] of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries by 2030,” says Steve Cotton, president and chief executive officer of Aqua Metals. “As the world’s 1.4 billion cars transition to electric vehicles over time, it is imperative that we utilize innovative, clean lithium-ion battery recycling or risk undermining our environmental progress."

He continues, “By working together, Aqua Metals and LiNiCo plan to provide a cost-effective and environmentally responsible solution for reutilizing in country the scarce and expensive metals needed for lithium-ion batteries instead of solely relying on mining strategic metals from out-of-country sources that can result in harsh environmental and social costs.”

In February, Aqua Metals and LiNiCo had reached a lease-to-buy agreement for the Aqua Metals’ 136,000-square-foot AquaRefining facility for which LiNiCo made the first purchase deposit of $1.25 million in October.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Aqua Metals to develop valuable recycled metals not only economically but also environmentally safe,” says Michael Vogel, president, CEO and founder of LiNiCo. “By utilizing the power of our proprietary innovative recycling technology that is already capable of receiving, crushing and producing high-purity black mass in our new recycling facility, combined with Aqua Metals’ proven AquaRefining technology, we believe our joint partnership will enable us to develop new methods to cost-effectively and sustainably recover high-quality metals in ways that will benefit the industry and the planet.”