Redwood identified early on that battery recycling is just one a part of a completely renewable battery manufacturing loop, moment alternative portions of the method carry climate-damaging downsides.
Battery recycling produces fabrics which are in most cases shipped to Asia for additional refinement sooner than they may be able to be put right into a battery. Just about all anode and cathode manufacturing for U.S. battery makers is finished in Asia, the Segment of Power mentioned. The delicate subject matter is next shipped again to the U.S. for battery mobile meeting, generating an plenty of carbon emissions.
“At a systems level, we weren’t actually solving the problem,” Switzer mentioned. “The United States is going to need a lot of batteries, and to build those batteries, you’re going to need a lot of battery materials. That’s what we’re trying to really help impact.”
Recycling batteries from the whole thing from Bluetooth audio system and electrical toothbrushes to energy equipment and EVs extra Redwood’s core trade, Switzer mentioned. It’s going to be the spine to the corporate’s manufacturing of cathode lively subject matter and anode copper foil — probably the most a very powerful elements in EV batteries.
Redwood plans to put together 100 gigawatt-hours of cathode lively subject matter and anode copper foil, which might energy 750,000 to at least one million EVs throughout the later 5 years. In a decade or so, the corporate is taking a look to scale to kind of 500 gigawatt-hours, Switzer mentioned.
The Segment of Power in February mentioned it will trade in Redwood a $2 billion mortgage to aid the growth of its McCarran, Nev., campus. The corporate additionally has a plant in Carson Town, Nev.
The Power Segment mentioned Redwood’s McCarran plant would be the first home facility to aid manufacturing of anode copper foil and cathode lively subject matter in a closed-loop lithium ion battery production procedure through recycling end-of-life battery and manufacturing scrap.
“Onshoring the production of these components is critical to America’s energy independence while ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of an advanced battery manufacturing industry here at home,” the branch mentioned in a February observation.
Redwood will importance the mortgage to assemble out the 100 gigawatt-hours of battery fabrics, along side the recycling and refining infrastructure powering that manufacturing, Switzer mentioned.
The corporate plans to have its anode copper foil subject matter in EVs through later day and its cathode lively subject matter in EVs in 2025.
Extending past recycling will likely be a price saver, mentioned Conrad Layson, senior supplementary propulsion analyst at AutoForecast Answers.
“Cathode powder is coming out in the recycling process anyway,” he mentioned. “It just makes a lot of sense in this arena.”
