ReElement technology makes pure lithium

Stepping up to the plate in the contest for battery recycling, American Resources Corp. reported its subsidiary, ReElement Technologies, has produced greater than 99.9% lithium with its patented recycling technology.

"Lithium refining in a cost effective and environmentally sensitive manner is the key to the domestic auto and electrification industry," said ReElement Technologies COO Jeff Peterson. "We applaud our team for exceeding our initial target results in producing ultra-high purity, battery-grade lithium from end-of-life batteries utilizing our revolutionary and patented technology."

American Resources is a next-generation and socially responsible supplier of raw materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace. Utilizing its patented multi-modal chromatography technology, developed in partnership with Purdue University, ReElement Technologies emerged from the work to begin its stream of highly refined battery materials to the parched supply chain.

With growing attention on the fragile supplies of battery materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese, ReElement has been tasked to focus on the separation and purification of these elements from several sources, including:

• End-of-life batteries of varying chemistries (NMC and LFP).

• Black mass produced by third parties.

• Battery manufacturing waste/scrap.

• Spodumene lithium ore.

Ironically, regardless of lithium's current historic price, it has typically not been recovered in the process of lithium-ion batteries. However, with the projected growth of electric vehicle manufacturing and large-scale battery storage, the demand for lithium is expected to double over the next three years and increase nearly tenfold over the next decade.

Even though supply growth for lithium is expected to nearly triple by 2025 to approximately 1.5 million metric tons per year, it is widely believed that demand will still largely outweigh projected supply, even with global reserves estimated at only 80 million tons.

To put things into perspective, the current market price for lithium carbonate used in batteries is currently greater than $75,000 per metric ton.

With its initial commercial battery production train at its first facility in Indiana, ReElement expects to have a production capacity of roughly 137,500 kilograms (137.5 metric tons) per year of ultra-pure battery minerals or compounds.

Furthermore, the company is currently in the design and engineering phase to implement its second battery production line, which will have an annual capacity of approximately 13.75 million kilograms (13,750 metric tons) per year, with the ability to efficiently expand on a modular basis thereafter.

This is in addition to the company's initial commercial production train that is used to recycle end-of-life permanent magnets for the separation and purification of their inherent rare earth elements.

Ultimately, ReElement will continue to scale its first rare earth and critical element recycling facility in Noblesville, Indiana, which will also be modularly scalable, and is currently evaluating additional sites for both standalone and co-located facilities.

"Our technology is unique in that we can operate standalone facilities, co-locate with battery manufacturers to process manufacturing waste or co-locate at mining operations to process spodumene to produce ultra-high purity lithium in either a carbonate or hydroxide form, and at a substantially lower economic and environmental cost than conventional chemical processing," Peterson finished.

ReElement technology

The chromatography utilized by ReElement is unique in that it is an efficient continuous, closed-loop, column-based, modular system that is able to operate at multiple stages and recover high-value components.

Typically, the company's process first isolates lithium, then subsequently isolates and recovers the supplemental products, such as the inherent manganese, cobalt, and nickel from NMC-type lithium-ion batteries, with minimal increase in costs.

Additionally, chromatography produces very little waste, making it environmentally benign and much easier to permit relative to conventional refining methods.

"The social and environmental benefits of our rare earth and critical element recycling segment of our business might be the most exciting component of our company," said American Resources CEO Mark Jensen. "Not only are we addressing domestic supply chain needs, but we are also addressing our sustainability challenges by revitalizing these much-needed elements back to ultra-pure qualities, reducing the need for the mining of these elements from environmentally and socially hazardous regions of the world, while keeping these materials in the domestic marketplace."

Under a recently expanded research program with Purdue University, ReElement is refining and further advancing its critical and rare earth element purification technology for other feedstocks, which include recycled waste permanent magnets, waste lithium-ion batteries, as well as coal waste and fly ash.

American Resources aims to continue focusing on running an efficient and streamlined operation as a new-aged supplier of raw materials to the electrification marketplace in the most sustainable of ways while also helping the world achieve its goals of carbon neutrality.

"We believe a sustainable and circular economy will reduce costs of feedstocks for our future customer base while also protecting the environment in the process," added Jensen. "We applaud and are very thankful for the efforts of our internal team led by Yi Ding along with our Purdue technology team on this project, Dr. Linda Wang and Gabriel Perez Schuster."

With another runner in the race for critical battery materials, even a little bit will help deter the ever-looming demand void that is constantly projected. While the inevitable overlap of deficit may perhaps run the spring dry, it is companies like ReElement that will certainly pave the way for energy independence.

"It is our belief that bringing practical, real-life solutions to the table will bolster a more resilient domestic supply chain for these increasingly critical raw materials and help secure our energy independence," the American Resources CEO finished. "Chromatography and our technology team is a game changer!"