Redwood inks partnership with Ultium Cells

Redwood Materials, a lithium-ion battery recycling company based in Carson City, Nevada, is is working with Ultium Cells LLC, the joint battery cell manufacturing venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, to recycle production scrap from the company’s Warren, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, facilities.

With this latest collaboration, Redwood says it has contracts with most of North America’s battery cell manufacturers.

The company will manage all the production scrap recycling from Ultium’s two facilities, which encompasses cathode and anode materials and cells. Ultium Cells’ two facilities are each 2.8 million-square-foot operations that expect to produce more than 80 gigawatt hours combined of battery cells annually, with Redwood receiving the majority of the scrap from its manufacturing process. Ultium also has a third facility under construction in Michigan.

Despite high efficiency in production, Redwood says the average battery factory generates 5 percent to 10 percent scrap, which translates into managing roughly 10,000 tons of material annually from Ultium.

Redwood says it will process this incoming material into high-quality battery materials, which are then supplied back to cell manufacturers as domestically produced anode and cathode components.

Compared with traditional methods to process mined ore into battery-grade materials, Redwood says its approach is more sustainable, using 80 percent less energy, generating 70 percent less CO₂ emissions and requiring 80 percent less water. 

According to Stanford, Redwood’s scalable process achieves at least 40 percent fewer emissions than other recyclers. The company can process more than 40,000 metric tons (about 15-20 gigawatts) annually.

Redwood says its hydrometallurgy facility is the first commercial-scale nickel "mine" to open in the United States in a decade. That facility not only recycles battery manufacturing scrap into raw nickel and cobalt but also serves as a commercial-scale source of lithium supply in the U.S.

As part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, Ultium Cells and Redwood were both selected by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) to jumpstart critical battery materials and cell production domestically. 

“Our collective goals are paramount in building America’s battery supply chain and supporting a swift, sustainable transition to electric vehicles and a clean energy economy," Redwood says in a blog post on its website. "As automakers and cell manufacturers continue to ramp up domestic battery production, Redwood stands ready to support this growth with our highly sustainable and scalable battery materials process.” 

In May 2021, Ultium Cells announced an agreement with Toronto-based Li-Cycle to recycle up to 100 percent of the scrap generated from battery cell manufacturing. However, Li-Cycle has had to stop construction on its Rochester Hub project, which experienced escalating construction costs that exceeded its previously disclosed guidance.

Li-Cycle President and CEO Ajay Kochhar said in the company’s third-quarter 2023 report that along with initiating the project review, Li-Cycle has performed an initial analysis of options for completing the Rochester Hub and is taking steps to save money, including staffing cuts, implementing working capital initiatives and eliminating nonessential operational spending. The company also planned to slow black mass production at its North American Spoke facilities, which include sites in Rochester, Alabama, Arizona and Ontario.

In its first-quarter 2024 earnings, the company says it is reviewing the potential mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) approach for the Rochester Hub with the Department of Energy and made progress on the comprehensive review of the Rochester Hub project, including advancing work with the local market to refine go-forward cost estimates for the MHP approach, saying it previously had confirmed the technical viability of the MHP process through an internal technical review. The MHP process involves the production of battery-grade lithium carbonate and MHP, which contains nickel, cobalt and manganese.