Cathode supply deal follows seal of approval from Argonne National Laboratory.

Helping to offset the imbalance of demand to resources, battery recycler Redwood Materials Inc. will supply Panasonic cathode material for lithium-ion battery cell production at the electronic powerhouse's new Kansas plant, which is slated to begin production in 2025, marking the first time this material will be produced in North America at gigafactory scale.

It is projected that in the next decade, global demand for lithium-ion batteries will grow by more than 500% as the production of electric vehicles and other climate-resilient products continue to ramp up.

Cathode material accounts for over half the cost of a lithium-ion battery cell, hence the mad scramble for affordable and sustainable supplies of the key ingredients for this negatively charged electrode – lithium, nickel, and cobalt – that meet the specifications integral to the performance and safety of an electric vehicle battery.

With the battery cell manufacturing landscape in North America expanding each day to meet the increasing demand, vast quantities of cathode material are necessary to supply the EV industry. Despite this, there is no cathode production at scale in North America today.

Battery recycling powerhouse

Founded in 2017 by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, this forward-thinking company has been ahead of the curve in recycling as a means to meet the monumental challenge of supplying the demand for lithium-ion battery material in the West.

"Our mission is to build and expand the production of battery components, anode and cathode, in the U.S. and produce them from an ever-increasing amount of recycled content," Redwood penned in its announced partnership with Panasonic. "We're making major investments in the U.S., and we'll be spending billions of dollars to scale our technology and facilities in the next few years to bring cathode online and ramp up production to 100 GWh (gigawatt hours), enough for 1 million EVs by 2025."

Having already formed partnerships with Ford Motors, Volkswagen, and Toyota, it is evident that what Redwood can provide has enticed these legacy automakers, especially considering they are at the forefront of the demand.

"By 2030 we expect our production of both anode and cathode to scale to 500 GWh/year of materials, enough to power five million electric vehicles," the company continued. "Redwood will have the highest recycled material content of lithium, cobalt, and nickel, making our cathode the most sustainable battery material available."

Where will Redwood obtain the necessary materials to recycle into the much-needed cathode for EV batteries? From perhaps the largest deposits of lithium and cobalt in the western hemisphere, the junk drawers of America.

Tapping into the untold volume of consumer-level electronics that have been collecting in landfills over the last thirty years, Redwood hopes to recover the materials from these old products – which can be sustainably broken down to their raw metals nearly infinitely – to significantly decrease society's reliance on newly mined materials.

You can read about Redwood Materials at The American giant of battery recycling in the February 9, 2022, edition of Metal Tech News.

Seal of approval

Seeking a reliable stream of cathode battery material for its future Kansas plant, Panasonic has already built rapport with Redwood and understands it will be able to provide the resources.

"Our partnership with Panasonic Energy of North America first began in 2019 and since then the cell production scrap from the Gigafactory in Nevada (in which Panasonic is the battery cell manufacturer) has been recycled by Redwood," the company stated. "Panasonic will also be the first long-term buyer of Redwood's anode copper foil, another essential component in lithium-ion battery production."

With an established collaboration already in play between the two companies, it will not be long until a truly closed-loop system for domestic cell production is underway.

"The U.S. must continue to scale partnerships like these to meet increased domestic production of EVs while simultaneously helping to decrease cost, supply chain risks, and CO2 resulting from a global logistics footprint," added Redwood.

Understanding the necessity for recycling technologies and its potential easing of domestic production pressures, the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory tested Redwood's recycled metal sulfates to validate the performance of its cathode material when put into the production of battery cells.

Used to synthesize NMC-811 (80% nickel, 10% manganese, 10% cobalt) with top-of-the-line industrial production methods, the results showed identical cycle-life performance, discharge capacity, and current efficiency compared to that of cathode materials made from metal-sulfates from virgin mined metals.

Argonne concluded "pristine performance can readily be obtained" from Redwood's recycled metal sulfates and will have higher capacity and lower direct current internal resistance.

Certified by one of the nation's leading research institutes, Redwood now has a bonafide seal of approval that certainly helped Panasonic make the final decision to invest in the evergreen company.

"Redwood will supply U.S. battery cell manufacturers with strategic battery materials produced domestically," the company continued. "Quickly ramping up a domestic battery materials supply chain and using the highest possible percent of local, recycled raw materials is the best way we can meet the United States' 2030 goals of 50% EV sales. We're grateful to our long-time partner, Panasonic, and excited to further accelerate a sustainable transportation future through our domestic anode and cathode material supply!"