Behind the scenes of a battery recycler’s efforts to adapt to an evolving EV market

Large bags full of powder emitted steam as they sat on the floor of Cirba Solutions’ lithium-ion battery processing facility in Lancaster, Ohio.

The powder is a material known as black mass. It’s made up of critical metals that are refined to battery-grade sulfates, which are used to make cathode materials for EV and other batteries.

Tech Brew recently toured the plant, where a $400 million expansion is in the works. We got to see the plant’s initial lithium-ion processing line, an expansion that prioritizes larger-format products like EV batteries, and under-construction buildings on the site that will help Cirba produce battery-grade sulfates and lithium carbonate equivalent in the coming years. The expanded facility, which was the first to get funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and has been awarded $82 million from the Department of Energy (DOE), is slated to produce enough recycled battery materials to power 250,000 EVs annually.

“The largest mine in the world is driving around our streets right now,” Cirba CEO David Klanecky previously told us. “And we have an opportunity to make sure that mine doesn’t go back into the ground.”

The project, which is slated to create 100 jobs, is just one example of investment in the clean-energy sector under the Biden administration. Now, the sector’s near-term prospects are murkier as a second Trump administration appears poised to rescind the federal government’s support for the clean-energy transition.

Nevertheless, Cirba’s expansion continues. The company recently hosted a topping-out ceremony to celebrate the placement of the final beam on a new building on the Lancaster site.

Danielle Spalding, Cirba’s VP of communications and public affairs, told Tech Brew that despite uncertainty around the pace of EV adoption, Cirba remains bullish on the sector’s long-term growth trajectory, due in part to consensus around the need to reduce reliance on foreign supply chains.

“From a bipartisan perspective,” she said, “the one thing everyone agrees on is that the US needs to have a stronger critical materials strategy to be more globally competitive.”

The mission: The battery is arguably the most important part of an EV, and solving battery-related challenges––like weight, cost, size, and range––is a key priority for automakers as they try to make their EVs more competitive.

EV batteries contain metals such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium. One of the benefits of recycling is reducing reliance on mining, which, as Tech Brew previously reported, is fraught with environmental and human rights concerns. Recycled materials have about four times lower emissions than virgin materials, per a 2023 McKinsey report.

Recycling can also help bring down battery costs. It’s expensive not only to acquire critical minerals but also to ship them around the world.

“The quicker we can get to economies of scale for domestic refinement and bringing in the key areas that we’re missing in supply chain, like cathode development,” Spalding said, “those together are going to help bring down the cost overall and demonstrate that we have this resilience of a supply chain.”

Growing market: By 2030, end-of-life EV batteries are slated to make up the majority of Cirba’s inputs, as opposed to the manufacturing scrap that’s more prevalent today.

McKinsey estimated that 100 million vehicle batteries will retire by 2033, and that battery recycling revenues will grow to more than $95 billion a year globally by 2040.

The BIL made $16 billion in funding for battery manufacturing and recycling available through the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC).

In August, Cirba hosted DOE officials at the Lancaster facility to showcase the site’s progress.

“Cirba Solutions is demonstrating how a strategic commitment to a circular, domestic battery supply chain can move the US forward, create incredible economic opportunity, and strengthen our energy security,” Giulia Siccardo, director of the MESC, said in a statement.

Uncertain future: Trump has threatened to roll back the Biden administration’s clean-energy agenda, yet some expect that he’ll keep parts of the IRA in place because so many of the investments spurred by the legislation have gone to GOP-held congressional districts.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has been working to get funding awarded ahead of the inauguration. The DOE, for example, recently finalized a $475 million loan for a Li-Cycle Holdings battery processing plant in New York, per Reuters. In October, the department announced the allocation of nearly $45 million to support eight EV battery recycling projects.

Cirba is expanding elsewhere, as well. In September, the company announced it had been selected for up to $200 million in DOE funding to support production of EV battery-grade salts at a South Carolina plant.

For now, at least, it’s full steam ahead.

“All of these are being paced,” Spalding said. “It doesn’t mean that pace won’t change based on what market adoption is, but it’s a constant evolution and evaluation.”