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PILOT RECYCLING HUB

In 2022, Aqua Metals began commissioning the world’s first sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling facility, located at the company’s Innovation Center in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center in Nevada.

Having previously demonstrated its patent-pending Li AquaRefining™ technology at bench scale, in December of 2022 the company initiated operations in a dedicated pilot recycling facility. Aqua Metals is actively recovering a suite of battery minerals from spent lithium-ion batteries using an innovative technology the company has pioneered to selectively electroplate valuable metals.

The Li AquaRefining Pilot is a closed-loop, low-temperature recycling system able to reclaim all the critical minerals in ‘black mass’—a ground up mixture of the metals in lithium batteries. Aqua Metals powers this efficient process using electricity (instead of polluting furnaces or intensive chemical processes) dramatically reducing the emissions and hazardous waste typical of battery recycling.

Aqua Metals Pilot Recycling Facility Timeline

Pilot Facility Photo Gallery

AQUA METALS SOLVES THE MASSIVE LITHIUM-ION RECYCLING CHALLENGE

How our approach is different from other recycling solutions:

NO SMELTING

No furnace required, no greenhouse emissions

HIGHER %

Recovers a higher percentage
of metals in a higher
quality form

MINIMAL WASTE

Closed-loop process that
recycles chemicals
and water

HIGHER QUALITY

Produces higher quality
products at a lower
operating cost