Glencore, Ace Green form partnership

Ace Green Recycling, a global recycling technology and supply chain platform with headquarters in Singapore, and Glencore PLC, a natural resources company and a producer and recycler of metals for the production of batteries, have announced plans to enter into long-term supply agreement for recycled lead and key end products recovered from recycled lithium-ion batteries. The companies say their strategic partnership will help create a global circular supply chain for these high-demand materials while reducing their environmental footprints.

Under the 15-year agreement, Glencore, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, can purchase up to 100 percent of Ace’s products from four of its planned lead-acid and lithium-ion battery recycling parks that are being built in the United States, India and Thailand and are expected to be completed by 2024. Once operational, Ace estimates these recycling parks will produce a total of 1.6 million tons of recycled metals containing lead, lithium, nickel and cobalt.

“Our partnership with Ace furthers our objective of creating a leading, global circularity platform for battery metals,” says Kunal Sinha, head of recycling at Glencore. “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 (Scopes 1,2,3) company by 2050.”

Ace, understanding the crucial role batteries play in the shift toward global electrification and adoption of renewable energy, has developed a portfolio of proprietary technologies to recycle batteries with zero Scope 1 emissions, extracting their critical materials with minimal environmental footprint. Ace says its process produces zero toxic solid waste or effluent. By pioneering hydrometallurgical recycling processes for lead-acid batteries (LABs) and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with recovery rates higher than 99 percent and 98 percent, respectively, the company has developed closed-loop and environmentally sustainable end-of-life solutions for both types of batteries, Glencore adds.

Ace says it also can reclaim valuable metals such as copper and aluminum while also being able to handle a wide variety of the world's most used lithium-ion battery chemistries to recover a variety of sulphates and carbonates of cobalt, manganese and nickel.

“We are delighted to partner with Glencore and together contribute towards making global electrification sustainable,” says 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.”

Once operating at commercial scale, Ace’s recycling facilities forming part of this agreement are estimated to have a total annual processing capacity of 250,000 tons of LABs and 47,000 tons of LIBs, Glencore notes.

Ace’s first commercial LIBs recycling facility is set to start up this month in Ghaziabad, India, where it will recycle various battery chemistries such as lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NCM), lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP). A second Indian facility in Mundra is expected to come online in the fourth quarter of 2023 at the same time as Ace’s flagship plant in Texas will begin operations, a news release from Glencore notes. Both facilities are projected to process up to 100,000 tons of LABs and 20,000 tons of LIBs annually by 2025.

Glencore says this global deal will lead to expanded and improved battery circularity in developed and emerging markets. The company describes Ace’s approach as being cost-competitive, automated and sustainable.

Vipin Tyagi, Ph.D., Ace’s other co-founder and chief technology officer, adds, “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 [environmental, social and governance] components and cost competitiveness, Ace’s battery recycling solutions provide real-world commercial and social benefits.”