Redwood Supplies, the battery recycling startup based by former Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, will likely 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 Power Resolution, to recycle cathode, anode and cell scrap from each their Warren, Ohio and Spring Hill, Tennessee services.
Battery recycling is a scorching trade as automakers and battery producers search to manage their battery materials provide, somewhat than depend on China, the worldwide chief within the area. Incentives within the U.S. and overseas in areas like Europe are piling up for recycled and domestically produced important battery supplies — like lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite.
President Joe Biden’s Inflation Discount Act, signed August 2022, offers a tax credit score for battery manufacturing and demanding mineral processing. Redwood benefited straight from that invoice passing in February 2023, when the Division of Power 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 services within the U.S.
The runway to really recycle EV batteries is an extended one, since most of these batteries are being produced right this moment and gained’t attain the top 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 grow to be a family title in EV battery recycling, however any startup on this area wants a near-term technique to stay to remain on the lengthy runway to income.
And scrap manufacturing is not any small feat. A Redwood spokesperson instructed TechCrunch that the typical battery manufacturing unit 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 equipped again to cell producers as domestically produced anode and cathode parts, the corporate mentioned.
Processing the supplies – not simply recycling them – can 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 this moment 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 services, with a part of its aim 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 yr, which might energy 5 million EVs. The corporate has not confirmed if that timeline remains to be correct.
Ultium Cells’ two services that will likely be supplying scrap to Redwood are every 2.8 million-square-feet operations which are anticipated to provide greater than 80 GWh mixed battery cells yearly, and Redwood says it can 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 remains to be ongoing. Ultium can be within the strategy of constructing a 3rd facility in Michigan. Redwood didn’t say if it can get the scrap from that manufacturing unit as nicely.
