BatterUP: a novel two-for-one cathode recycling technique

BatterUP turns spent lithium-ion battery (LIB) cathodes into value-added energy materials by (safely) putting metal in the microwave. Our “one pot” direct upcycling method uses high-throughput microwave reactors to quickly and efficiently customize products on-demand and produce quantities large enough for scale-up, while helping to secure U.S. supply chains for critical materials like cobalt and nickel. Critical materials make LIB cathodes the most valuable part of the battery, but also the most expensive and difficult to recycle. Current recycling methods either recover critical materials by destroying the cathode or reuse the original cathode at the cost of the versatility needed to keep pace with industry trends. High capital costs (up to $100M per plant) and low efficiency (up to 30% waste) have resulted in recent high-profile bankruptcies of U.S. recycling companies and make cathode recycling more expensive than simply importing critical materials from foreign countries. These factors impair U.S. energy dominance by creating reliance on China, where the vast majority of both LIB recycling and LIB cathode production take place.