Ascend Elements to Supply 5,000 Metric Tons of Recycled Lithium to Koura

Recycled lithium carbonate recovered from used lithium-ion batteries by Ascend Elements.

Westborough-based Ascend Elements, a lithium-ion battery recycling and engineered materials company, will supply Koura with up to 5,000 metric tons of recycled and recovered lithium carbonate per year. Manhattan-based Koura is an Orbia business and one of the world’s largest producers of fluoroproducts and advanced technologies.

Ascend Elements said that Koura will use the recycled lithium carbonate as the source for lithium-ion battery materials in the US and European markets. This will include lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6), an essential electrolyte salt.

Ascend Elements will enable Koura to generate enough material to support the production of more than one million electric vehicles per year. With more than half of U.S. and European car sales projected to be electric by 2030, demand for regional material supply is increasing.

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Ascend Elements CEO Mike O’Kronley said, “By recovering lithium and other critical metals from used lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap, we are keeping those materials out of landfills while also making EV batteries cleaner and more sustainable.”

Added Gregg Smith, President of Orbia Fluorinated Solutions (Koura), “Koura’s ongoing partnership with Ascend Elements has led to gains in process technologies and fluorinated chemistries that yield sustainable materials for the high-performing lithium-ion batteries needed in major global markets. We are steering the electrified future together.”

The battery recycling process of Ascend Elements recovers lithium carbonate from used lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing scrap for sale to battery materials companies, such as Koura. The recycled lithium is also used by Ascend Elements as part of its patented Hydro-to-Cathode direct precursor synthesis process to produce sustainably engineered cathode precursor (pCAM) and cathode active materials (CAM).

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The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act provides incentives for the use of domestic and recycled sources of critical battery materials, including lithium. Peer-reviewed studies have shown recycled battery metals can perform as well as virgin metals while reducing carbon emissions associated with mining.

Ascend Elements recently tied up with South Korea-based battery materials company EcoPro Group for the development, qualification, and integration of recycled battery materials into cathode products of EcoPro.