Aqua Metals Recovers Lithium from Batteries, Claiming Zero Emissions

About 705,000 tons of wasted lithium-ion batteries will inundate the world by 2025; adding to that will be another 9 million tons a year until 2040, estimates market research and consulting company Yole Développement. Today, the only commercially available technology ready to process the pending tsunami is smelting, or pyro-based methods with a heavy footprint.  Pyro-based processes use high heat, depending on natural gas to produce it, and may rely on oxygen, which creates polluting nitrogen oxides. Other emission-generating steps entailed in recovery employ potentially harmful chemicals and byproducts that must be disposed.Some developers are clamoring for a more sustainable solution, with Aqua Metals among them. The McCarran, NV-based startup developed a battery recycling method that, unlike smelting, uses no heat and almost no chemicals (with the small fraction recyclable) and…

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