Beyond Recycling: Aqua Metals Leads The Charge In Building Circular Domestic Supply Chain Of Critical Minerals for Lithium Batteries

As the world ushers in a new era of sustainability and electrification, the ability to recycle the critical minerals that will power our devices, our vehicles and our economy is fundamental to achieving the most ambitious global clean energy goals. 

In this fast-approaching future, developing truly sustainable recycling stands out as a crucial component of building a circular economy for the critical minerals necessary for manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines, and especially lithium-ion batteries.

Companies like Aqua Metals Inc. AQMS are at the forefront of this transition, redefining the recycling landscape with innovative technologies that are delivering a clear path to net-zero battery recycling.

Understanding Clean Recycling

Sustainable recycling is the process of converting end-of-life products and materials into new resources that can be fed right back into the supply chain, without creating a new environmental hazard due to harmful emissions or significant waste.

Today, most lithium battery recycling uses fossil fuel-powered furnaces and/or intensive chemical processes that produce significant carbon emissions and generate untenable waste streams that end up in landfills (or worse, dumped in the ocean). Just because something is labeled as recycling doesn’t mean that it is inherently clean or sustainable – how we recycle matters.

With the mounting dependency on battery technology and the need to recycle millions of tons of lithium-ion batteries in the coming years, adopting environmentally sound recycling methods is essential to support the deployment of clean energy technologies and combat climate change.

Aqua Metals' Mission And Technology

Aqua Metals is pioneering the path toward environmentally responsible recycling with its commitment to clean recycling practices. Utilizing its proprietary AquaRefining™ technology, the company leverages the power of electricity to extract valuable metals from spent lithium and EV batteries.

This innovative and patented process, which circumvents the need for thermal processing or trainloads of consumable chemicals, drastically cuts down on both waste and emissions.

The crux of their mission is to turn the tide on traditional, environmentally burdensome recycling methods by offering a solution that is not only cleaner but also cost-effective and able to produce battery-grade recycled materials from spent batteries. With this approach, Aqua Metals is hoping to set a new benchmark for sustainability within the clean metals recycling industry – and build a circular domestic supply chain for critical battery minerals.

The AquaRefining Process

At the core of Aqua Metals' innovation is the AquaRefining process, a sophisticated system that transforms lithium battery ‘black mass’ – the industry term for the composite of shredded battery metals and manufacturing scraps ready to be recycled – into high-purity, reclaimed materials ready to be delivered back into the supply chain.

Initiating by dissolving this black mass in a specialized solution of water and diluted acid, the process is meticulously automated to yield uniform and predictable outcomes across varying batches of black mass from various sources. The dissolved material then flows through a number of finely tuned stages, from various filters to remove impurities to a number of specific unit operations to capture individual metals found in lithium batteries (including lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese).

The main differentiator – and what enables the patented recycling process to boast such an environmental and economic advantage – is replacing the polluting furnaces and intensive chemical processes used today with clean electricity. Instead of using heat or chemical reactions to extract the valuable materials, Aqua Metals uses an innovative application of electroplating – quite literally pulling the dissolved metals out of the solution atom-by-atom and attaching them to an electrode for recovery of high-purity materials.

The other hallmark of this groundbreaking process is its regenerative approach, where electricity is also employed to replenish the proprietary solution the company uses to dissolve the materials – thereby enhancing economic viability and lowering chemical usage on site by more than 95% compared to competing recycling technologies.

These distinctive advantages underscore Aqua Metals' commitment to a sustainable and economically sound recycling methodology that enables a truly circular supply chain – without all the chemical waste and climate pollution of today’s leading recycling processes.

Economic And Environmental Impact

The economic benefits of Aqua Metals' approach are clear. Aqua Metals' AquaRefining technology delivers advantages through the production of high-purity metals from spent batteries using clean electricity.

Replacing furnaces and significant chemical and waste storage facilities in traditional recycling could lower necessary capital costs by as much as half for a new recycling facility. And managing on-site storage for trainloads of chemicals each week, producing and disposing of equal amounts of chemical byproducts, and powering energy-intensive furnaces create much higher and less predictable operating costs.

Environmentally, Aqua Metals reports that AquaRefining reduces carbon emissions by more than 83% compared to hydrometallurgy competitors. While traditional methods emit tons of CO2 and generate more sodium sulfate waste than valuable materials recovered, AquaRefining’s emissions are as clean as the electricity the company is able to source, with exceptionally high recovery rates and no waste byproducts sent to a landfill. This approach not only minimizes the environmental footprint but also bolsters the United States' efforts to establish a sustainable loop for lithium and other critical battery minerals.

Strategic Partnerships For A Circular Economy

Through strategic partnerships with companies like 6K Energy, Aqua Metals is poised to create the first sustainable circular domestic supply chain for critical minerals, creating a continuous loop of recycled materials feeding back into the lithium battery manufacturing supply chain. This venture will see the co-location of recycling and cathode manufacturing facilities, leading to the first production of low-carbon cathode active materials from recycled battery elements in the industry.

Advancements In Battery Manufacturing

Aqua Metals has also collaborated with Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp DLFI to supply the manufacture of lithium-based battery cells using high-purity lithium hydroxide recovered through their recycling process. This marks a stride toward a more sustainable lithium battery manufacturing industry, potentially setting the stage for a closed lithium loop within the state of Nevada.

Critical Minerals And National Interests

In the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Aqua Metals is emerging as a key player in realizing the U.S.'s ambition for a clean, electrified economy. The company's AquaRefining™ technology revolutionizes the recycling of lithium-ion batteries, offering a net-zero emissions pathway that aligns with the IRA's emphasis on sustainable practices and building domestic capacities to produce critical minerals.

Critical mineral security is not just an economic opportunity for the country but also a national security necessity as these refined metals become more central to our economy.

The company’s innovative approach tackles the challenges of critical mineral scarcity and environmental degradation, ensuring a more sustainable and circular approach to battery recycling, which is crucial for the burgeoning EV sector.

Aqua Metals is pushing to become a leader in sustainable lithium battery recycling, offering innovative solutions to the waste and emissions challenges inherent in current recycling. With its advanced technology and strategic initiatives, Aqua Metals is not just recycling materials but possibly reshaping the very fabric of the industry for a sustainable future.

Featured photo by Lalit Kumar from Unsplash

This post contains sponsored content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.