ABTC opens battery recycling facility, joins e-scrap recycling program

American Battery Technology Co. (ABTC), a Reno, Nevada-based integrated critical battery materials company, has announced the operational startup of its lithium-ion battery recycling facility, located in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center in McCarran, Nevada.

“We are excited to have achieved this major milestone and to now be generating commercial-scale quantities of domestic recycled battery metal products,” ABTC CEO Ryan Melsert says. “By securing our move-in-ready industrial facility in early 2023, we were able to greatly accelerate our timeline to operations, and the last step of receiving approvals for the updated operational permits for our specific internally developed processes were received over the past week.”

ABTC's integrated battery recycling system uses a demanufacturing and targeted chemical extraction. These processes differ from conventional methods of battery recycling, which use high-temperature furnaces or shredding and grinding systems, the company says.

According to ABTC, the commercial facility has the capacity to process more than 22,040 tons of battery feedstock materials per year. This first phase of operations will process battery feedstock materials into recycled products, including copper, aluminum, steel, a lithium intermediate and a black mass intermediate material that will be sold through an already executed marketing agreement with Ireland-based metals trader TechMet-Mercuria. Once the second phase is operational, the lithium intermediate material will be refined into a battery-grade lithium hydroxide product, and the black mass intermediate material will be refined into battery-grade nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium hydroxide products.

ABTC also will serve as the lithium-ion battery recycler for Washington-based Pyxera Global and Nashville, Tennessee-based The Electronics Reuse and Recycling Alliance's (TERRA’S) Done with It pilot program, sponsored by FedEx, to test the viability of recovering used electronics. The program aims to develop circular business models for the logistics industry. 

“Consumer electronics are notoriously difficult to efficiently collect, aggregate and recycle,” says Ross Polk, director of business development at ABTC.  “We are excited to support this collection and recycling program, thanks to Pyxera, FedEx and project partners. By removing barriers around cost and collection for consumers, ABTC aims to increase the amount of batteries entering the closed-loop supply chain in the United States.” 

Residents of the continental U.S. wishing to donate their laptops and tablets can request a free FedEx shipping label and donation instructions by visiting the Done with It website. The program will accept items through Dec. 15. 

TERRA’s Done with It mail-in recycling program will facilitate the nationwide collection of laptops and tablets and will direct the donated devices to a FedEx facility in Tennessee. To protect donor privacy, every device will have its internal memory wiped or physically destroyed in accordance with the R2v3 certification standards. 

If a donated device is repairable, it will be sent to Electronics Recycling Solutions (ERS), a Gallatin, Tennessee-based social enterprise that is also R2v3-certified and dedicated to training adults with developmental disabilities in high-demand repair skills. If the device cannot be fixed, it will be broken down and its component parts harvested for recycling. In particular, the batteries will be sent to ABTC, which will recover the materials necessary for a domestic battery metals supply chain, powering electric vehicles. 

The lithium-ion batteries will be recycled at ABTC’s new commercial-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility in McCarran, Nevada.