Ace Green Recycling finalizes plans for battery recycling site in India

Battery recycler Ace Green Recycling, with North American headquarters in Houston, has finalized a lease agreement for a site in India to build what it claims will be the country’s largest battery recycling facility.

The facility will be in Mundra, Gujarat, and built on Ace’s existing commercial Indian operations, which have been recycling batteries, including lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries, since 2023.

Also, as part of the expansion in India, Ace has revealed plans to establish 10,000 metric tons of annual LFP battery recycling capacity in India by 2026 to meet what the company says is growing demand for LFP battery recycling.

According to Ace, the site’s location in Mundra, which is near major Indian ports handling more than 10 percent of the country’s maritime cargo, streamlines the transportation of battery recycling feedstock and offtake products.

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The company plans to deploy its LithiumFirst LFP battery recycling technology in India via a phased approach along with the planned deployment of the technology at its site in Texas in the Greater Houston area.

The LithiumFirst technology recycles batteries at room temperature through a fully electrified hydrometallurgical process that Ace says produces zero Scope 1 emissions and zero liquid and solid waste. Throughout the process, the company says its technology has maintained commercial lithium recoveries from LFP batteries at levels of about 75 percent, producing lithium carbonate of purities exceeding 99 percent, which is then fed back into the battery materials value chain.

“LFP is expected to dominate the lithium battery market by 2030 and Ace is strategically scaling our LFP battery recycling capacity to meet demand and support our growing customer base,” Ace CEO Nishchay Chadha says. “We believe that Ace is unique in its ability to sustainably recycle LFP batteries and we plan to continue our focus on this market to build on our first-mover advantage.

“Our team recently visited battery recycling facilities in China and we believe our LFP battery recycling technology to be more advanced despite a more mature and larger scale lithium-ion recycling ecosystem there.”

Ace also plans to use its GreenLead recovery technology to recycle lead batteries at its Mundra recycling campus. The company says this technology is “a far more environmentally friendly alternative” to legacy smelting operations, also producing zero Scope 1 emissions via a fully electric process.

“Ace's innovative technology enables profitable recycling of LFP batteries, even with the current low lithium price, by recovering significant amounts of these critical minerals,” Ace Chief Technology Officer Vipin Tyagi says. “We believe that our successful operational demonstration positions us for future partnerships and collaborations that will unlock the full potential of our LithiumFirst technology in this market.”

When fully operational, Ace expects the Mundra LFP battery recycling facility to create up to 50 high-value jobs in the local economy, bringing the company's employment in India to more than 100.