[fwpc3]

Encouraging news about lithium batteries and recycling.

From Apple News today:

AS DEMAND GROWS FOR EV batteries—along with pressure on supply chains for the scarce minerals they contain—Redwood Materials has devised a recipe for recycling, refining, and remanufacturing these batteries at industrial scale. Redwood uses “hydrometallurgy” processes to take a spent EV battery and extract nickel, cobalt, and lithium—all minerals generally sourced from overseas mines that often operate in places with iffy worker rights and environmental protections. The goal is to create a circular battery economy: Redwood signed an agreement with Toyota in 2023 that will have Redwood recycling the automaker’s spent batteries and selling it new battery components. That followed a similar deal with Panasonic in 2022. Last year, the company’s two-year-old Nevada plant, which is “the only new commercial-scale source of lithium supply in both North America and Europe,” according to Redwood chief commercial officer Cal Lankton, began producing copper foil as well. “Most mining projects take over 10 years to bring into operation, but Redwood built and turned ours on in less than a quarter of that time,” Lankton says. Redwood also secured a $2 billion Department of Energy loan to help it expand the Nevada facility and build a new plant in South Carolina. Last year, the company recycled about 10 GWh worth of lithium-ion batteries, enough to power about 100,000 cars.

[Topspinmo]

Right…………

[spinner1001]

More EVs need to be sold than now to make Redwood a viable battery recycling business.

‘Build it and they shall come’ won’t work for this kind of business.

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