"The U.S. Needs to Create Localized Supply Sources of Critical Battery Materials" - Ace Green Recycling CEO

Nishchay Chadha's inspiration to start his business was driven by his experiences in the recycling and mining industries. Earlier on in his  career he witnessed the negative environmental impacts of unorganised recycling practices, particularly in emerging markets that often improperly disposed toxic waste.

The company he now runs - Ace Green Recycling - has developed battery recycling technology that recovers critical battery materials from both lithium-ion and lead batteries.

The company is building its flagship facility in Texas. 

"The sector lacked innovation and a truly sustainable solution from both cost and environmental perspectives, and I knew this challenge would be a large opportunity if a company could solve these problems,"  Chadha, Ace Green Recycling's CEO and Co-Founder, tells Auto Futures.

"We are uniquely positioned in the marketplace as we can commercially recycle both lead and lithium-ion batteries using fully electrified processes that produce zero Scope 1 carbon emissions, zero toxic water and zero solid waste," he adds.

Notably, the company is able to effectively and sustainably recover value from lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which has been a challenge for many other players in our industry.

On the lithium side of the business, Ace's LithiumFirst™ technology is capable of commercially recovering up to 75% of lithium with a purity exceeding 99% from LFP and Nickel Manganese Cobalt ("NMC") batteries.

"In addition to recovering lithium, this technology also recovers NMC salts, graphite, iron phosphate and other materials such as plastics, steel, aluminum and copper by utilizing a closed-loop hydrometallurgical process that avoids pyrometallurgical operations and produces no liquid waste or Scope 1 carbon emissions," he explains.

On the lead side of the business, Ace's GREENLEAD® Recovery Technology is capable of recovering up to 99% of battery-grade lead with more than 99.98% purity. 

"Ace's process is designed to replace legacy smelting operations, which are detrimental to the environment, as well as human health due to potential lead poisoning, and is expected to facilitate a more streamlined permitting process."

Onshoring The Production Of Raw Materials

Ace's main near term focus is on the US market. 

"We have plans to deploy our technology at scale in this market, starting with our flagship project in Texas. We expect to begin setup of equipment in 2025 at this facility and commence production in the first half of 2026. We are also planning to scale globally looking at markets such as Europe, Asia, and Africa," says Chadha.

Recently, it announced our plans to expand its recycling capacity in India and build the largest battery recycling plant in the country.

"This development is part of our broader strategy to scale LFP battery recycling capacity in a cost-effective manner to meet the growing demand."

Chadha.believes that the company's planned facility in Texas will help support the US in safeguarding its critical battery metals supply chain.

"Right now, the U.S. doesn’t have sufficient supply of the raw materials and refining capacity to produce enough batteries to meet the growing demand and is dependent on imports of batteries and battery materials while at the same time it is losing a lot of battery materials via exports of end-of-life/scrap batteries which are shipped overseas due to lack of recycling capacity in the US," he says.

"In order to reduce its reliance on foreign countries, mainly China, it is imperative that the U.S. begins onshoring the production of raw materials. In addition to reducing reliance, this will also streamline the transportation of key materials which will optimize production and drive down costs, which will eventually trickle down to the consumer to facilitate more mainstream EV adoption." 

Ace's Growth Journey

As part of its growth aims, Ace has announced plans to list on a US exchange.

"Ace plans to expand in the U.S. and globally and we believe becoming a listed company is the ideal path for our company as it enables us to execute on our growth strategy more quickly," says Chadha..

"We are at a strategic inflection point in our growth journey, and we are well-positioned to capitalize on the exciting trends in both lead and lithium battery recycling. We believe accessing the public markets will help us accelerate our development strategy. In addition, our planned focus on the U.S. market makes listing on a U.S. exchange a strategic move that better aligns our goals with our core stakeholders," he adds.

Finally we asked Chadha to predict what Li-ion battery recycling will be like by 2030.

"We expect the market for lithium-ion battery recycling to grow exponentially over the coming years, as the market is projected to exceed $35 billion by 2040. In connection to this growth, keep an eye on LFP. LFP batteries are expected to dominate the lithium battery market by 2030, and we are strategically scaling our LFP recycling capacity to meet demand and support our growing customer base," he concludes