AE Elemental, a joint venture of U.S.-based Ascend Elements and Poland-based Elemental Strategic Metals, recently celebrated the grand opening of its first commercial-scale EV battery recycling facility. Located in Zawiercie, Poland, the companies say the newly constructed facility can process 12,000 metric tons of used Li-ion batteries each year – or approximately 28,000 EV battery packs annually.

In the European Union (EU), new batteries will be required to contain a minimum amount of recycled content by 2030. Lithium-ion battery recycling also keeps hazardous battery materials out of landfills while minimizing the environmental impacts associated with nickel, cobalt and lithium mining, the companies say.

“We have come significantly closer to becoming a global leader in the market of recycling materials necessary to produce EV batteries,” said Michał Zygmunt, CEO of Elemental Strategic Metals. “As part of our contribution to the joint venture with a reputable American partner, we make available a state-of-the-art industrial downstream processing facility in Zawiercie and one of the most developed networks of waste collection points in Europe with broad knowledge and experience in the field of recycling and waste logistics.”

The AE Elemental facility will disassemble, discharge and shred EV batteries to produce black mass, which can be used to make new engineered EV battery materials, including cathode active material (CAM) and cathode precursor (pCAM). Commercial-scale lithium extraction capabilities will be added to the new facility in Fall 2024 to be operational by 2026.

Beyond Poland, the joint venture is planning to build Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Germany, the companies say. The planned AE Elemental facility in Germany will have the capacity to recycle up to 25,000 metric tons of batteries per year, or approximately 58,000 EVs annually.

Dozens of business and community leaders from Europe and North America attended the opening ceremony and toured the state-of-the-art facility.