Redwood to recyle Ultium scrap

Battery recycler Redwood Materials has partnered with battery manufacturing joint venture Ultium to recycle production scrap from its facilities.

Redwood will process the majority of the cathode and anode material scrap from the battery manufacturer's Warren, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee facilities. Redwood forecast that at 10pc scrap rate, these facilities would 10,000 metric tonnes/yr of cathode and anode scrap. Ultium is already shipping scrap from the facilities to Redwood for processing.

Ultium is a joint venture between automaker General Motors (GM) and South Korean battery maker LG Chem. The Ohio and Tennessee plants operate with a combined capacity of 80 GWh/yr, according to GM. The battery maker is also building a third 41GWh facility in Lansing, Michigan, slated for commissioning later this year.

The move comes as Redwood expands its agreements across electric vehicle supply chains to grow its foothold in battery recycling and materials manufacturing. The recycler agreed to supply Japanese automaker Toyota with cathode active materials and anode copper in return for the automaker's battery material scrap and end-of-life automotive batteries.

Redwood also signed an agreement with Japanese battery maker Panasonic to supply high-nickel content cathode materials to Panasonic's planned Kansas battery plant.

By Andrew Saucer