Ace Green to merge with SPAC

Ace Green Recycling Inc., a hydrometallurgical battery recycling technology provider with North American headquarters in Houston, has agreed to merge with New York-based Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. II (ATAC II), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Ace Green has entered into a definitive business combination agreement through which a wholly-owned subsidiary of ATAC II will merge with and into Ace, with Ace becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of ATAC II and Ace's operations becoming the operating business of the combined entity.

Ace's hydrometallurgical battery recycling technology focuses on recovering critical battery materials from lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. The company's modular technologies are fully electrified and reportedly produce zero Scope 1 emissions and no toxic fluids or solid waste.

The technology provider operates commercial facilities in India (a lithium-ion battery line that started operating in 2023) and that it has licensed its technology to ACME Metal in Taiwan, a lead-acid battery system that started up earlier this year. Ace Green has plans to deploy its technology by building its own plant in the United States.

Its current systems in India and Taiwan combined have processed more than 1,500 tons of lead and lithium batteries, according to Ace Green.

The firm says its LithiumFirst technology can recover up to 75 percent of lithium with a purity exceeding 99 percent from lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) and nickel-manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries.

In addition to recovering lithium, the LithiumFirst process recovers NMC salts, graphite, iron phosphate, plastics, steel, aluminum and copper by using what Ace Green says is a closed-loop hydrometallurgical process that avoids pyrometallurgical (smelting) operations.

Ace Green's GreenLead Recovery Technology is designed to replace legacy smelting operations, and it expects its hydrometallurgical process eventually to facilitate a more streamlined permitting process.

As a public company, Ace Green sees “immense opportunities” in both the $20 billion lead-acid battery recycling market and the “rapidly growing lithium-ion battery recycling market, projected to exceed $35 billion by 2040.”

“Ace is advancing electrification by building a global recycling technology to create sustainable supply chain solutions for critical metals that will enable next-generation technologies,” CEO Nishchay Chadha says. “Our planned focus on the U.S. market makes listing on a U.S. exchange a strategic move that better aligns our goals with our core stakeholders."

New York-based Chardan Capital Markets is serving as Ace Green's exclusive financial advisor, New Jersey-based Lucosky Brookman LLP is serving as its legal counsel and New York-based Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal counsel to ATAC II.