Nth Cycle starts up commercial operations

Nth Cycle, headquartered in Massachusetts, says it is the first company in the United States to produce premium nickel cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), which it says is a mandatory component for multiple clean-energy, consumer and defense markets. It did so using its Oyster system, which it installed and started up at an existing 20,000-square-foot facility in Fairfield, Ohio, where it is processing black mass from recycled lithium-ion batteries and other nickel-bearing scrap. The site also serves as an independent test site for partners.

The company opened its facility in southwest Ohio in June of last year.

The Oyster unit installed in Ohio can process up to 3,100 metric tons of scrap materials to produce up to 900 metric tons of MHP per year (equivalent to upwards of 22 million cell phone batteries). The site also allows potential partners of Nth Cycle, including recyclers, original equipment manufacturers and Fortune 500 automotive, consumer and electronics companies, to validate its effectiveness in advance of collocation.

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Nth Cycle says its Oyster can be collocated at its partners’ sites, eliminating the years of permitting and billions of dollars needed to build a stand-alone refining plant, while dramatically reducing transportation, time-to-market, cost, emissions and waste. With Nth Cycle’s patented electro-extraction technology, the Oyster converts recyclable industrial scrap and mined ore into the full spectrum of critical metals using electricity, replacing pyrometallurgy.

According to the company, the Oyster reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90 percent compared with traditional mining methods, helping manufacturers meet the Inflation Reduction Act’s strict domestic sourcing requirements for electric vehicles.

Nth Cycle says its facility in Fairfield, a designated Disadvantaged Community per the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, will create new jobs and provide critical opportunities in the expanding clean energy market.

“In less than 12 months, we’ve installed and operationalized our state-of-the-art Oyster system, creating the first commercial domestic source of high-quality nickel and cobalt MHP from scrap,” says Megan O’Connor, co-founder and CEO of Nth Cycle. “This system not only helps to end decades of U.S. reliance on foreign supply chains but also sets a new standard for modular, sustainable, high-purity critical metals production.”

The company commemorated the launch of the site's Oyster with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 9 that was attended by Congressman Brad Wenstrup, officials with the U.S. Department of Energy, Fairfield Mayor Mitch Rhodus, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, State Rep. Jennifer Gross and partners of Nth Cycle.

When the company opened the site last year, Rhodus said, “Fairfield industries have been involved in automotive manufacturing since our founding, and we are excited to continue to be part of the innovation occurring with electric vehicles. Nth Cycle will be a great complement to our strong industrial sector.”