Redwood Supplies, the battery recycling startup based by former Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, can be recycling manufacturing scrap for batteries going into Normal Motors electrical autos.
The corporate introduced Thursday that it’s working with Ultium Cells, the joint battery manufacturing enterprise between GM and LG Vitality Resolution, to recycle cathode, anode and cell scrap from each their Warren, Ohio and Spring Hill, Tennessee amenities.
Battery recycling is a scorching business as automakers and battery producers search to manage their battery materials provide, reasonably than depend on China, the worldwide chief within the house. Incentives within the U.S. and overseas in areas like Europe are piling up for recycled and domestically produced vital battery supplies — like lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite.
President Joe Biden’s Inflation Discount Act, signed August 2022, supplies a tax credit score for battery manufacturing and demanding mineral processing. Redwood benefited instantly from that invoice passing in February 2023, when the Division of Vitality gave the startup a $2 billion mortgage to construct out its battery recycling facility in Nevada. The DOE additionally gave Ultium Cells a $2.5 billion mortgage to develop its cell manufacturing amenities within the U.S.
The runway to really recycle EV batteries is an extended one, since most of these batteries are being produced right now and gained’t attain the tip of their lives for a few years. That’s why offers like this one with Ultium to recycle scrap are so necessary. Redwood – which additionally has offers with Toyota and Panasonic (which produces batteries for Tesla), has already turn into a family identify in EV battery recycling, however any startup on this house wants a near-term technique to stay to remain on the lengthy runway to earnings.
And scrap manufacturing isn’t any small feat. A Redwood spokesperson instructed TechCrunch that the common battery manufacturing facility generates 5% to 10% in scrap, which interprets to Redwood managing round 10,000 tons of fabric yearly — the equal of day by day truckloads of scrap.
Redwood will recycle Ultium’s scrap and course of it into high-quality battery supplies, that are then provided again to cell producers as domestically produced anode and cathode parts, the corporate mentioned.
Processing the supplies – not simply recycling them – can also be a part of Redwood’s long-term technique, as the value of supplies fluctuates commonly. The large cash will come from processing supplies, which right now often get despatched to Asia for processing after which despatched again to the U.S.
In August 2023, Redwood raised $1 billion to increase its battery recycling amenities, with a part of its purpose to spice up its anode copper foil and cathode lively materials manufacturing capability. The corporate mentioned on the time it anticipated to provide round 100 gigawatt-hours annual capability of cathode lively supplies and anode foil, which may energy 1 million EVs, by 2025. By 2030, Redwood hopes that manufacturing output would scale to 500 GWh per 12 months, which might energy 5 million EVs. The corporate has not confirmed if that timeline continues to be correct.
Ultium Cells’ two amenities that can be supplying scrap to Redwood are every 2.8 million-square-feet operations which can be anticipated to provide greater than 80 GWh mixed battery cells yearly, and Redwood says it’s going to obtain nearly all of that scrap. In 2021, Ultium additionally partnered with Canadian battery recycling agency Li-Cycle to recycle scrap, however GM has not confirmed if that deal continues to be ongoing. Ultium can also be within the means of constructing a 3rd facility in Michigan. Redwood didn’t say if it’s going to get the scrap from that manufacturing facility as properly.
