Aqua Metals is redefining battery recycling through its pioneering regenerative electro-hydrometallurgy process, offering a fundamentally cleaner and more circular alternative to traditional pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. Unlike conventional recycling, which relies on high-temperature furnaces or large volumes of caustic chemicals, Aqua Metals’ proprietary AquaRefining™ uses electricity and water-based solutions to extract high-purity metals from “black mass”-the concentrated mix of valuable minerals left after spent lithium-ion batteries are shredded.
How the Process Works
- Spent batteries are collected, discharged, and shredded to produce black mass, containing lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese.
- Aqua Metals receives this black mass and dissolves the metals into a dilute, mostly water-based solution (about 85% water, 15% acid, with a pH similar to cola).
- Through a series of electrochemical cells, each metal is selectively recovered by electroplating, powered entirely by clean electricity-no furnaces, no toxic emissions.
- The process is closed-loop: chemicals and water are regenerated and reused, resulting in up to 95% less landfill waste than typical hydrometallurgy and dramatically reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Environmental and Circularity Impact
- Aqua Metals’ system can recover lithium (as battery-grade lithium hydroxide or carbonate), nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese at high purity, enabling direct reuse in new batteries-a key step toward a truly circular supply chain.
- The company’s pilot facility in Nevada, operational since 2023, runs 24/5 and is scaling up to process 75 tons of battery black mass per year, with plans for much larger commercial facilities.
- By replacing fossil fuels and chemicals with electricity, the process achieves up to 92% lower GHG emissions and 95% lower water use versus conventional recycling, and produces saleable quantities of all critical battery metals.
- Aqua Metals is also expanding into bioremediation and soil cleanup, leveraging its closed-loop principles to address legacy contamination at industrial sites.
Aqua Metals’ approach addresses two of the biggest challenges in the battery and metals industry:
- Sustainable recovery of critical minerals needed for electric vehicles and grid storage, without creating new environmental hazards.
- Enabling a circular economy by producing battery-grade materials that can go directly back into new batteries, closing the loop on resource use and minimizing waste.
Aqua Metals is the only operational electro-hydrometallurgical recycler in North America, and its innovative, closed-loop process is setting a new standard for clean, efficient, and circular battery recycling. This technology not only reduces emissions and waste, but also helps secure domestic supplies of critical minerals, supporting the global transition to sustainable energy.
Dashboard Data Explanation
The data shown for Aqua Metals (2022-2024) illustrates the company’s rapid progress in scaling up a fundamentally new, cleaner approach to lithium-ion and lead battery recycling, with measurable impacts on both environmental performance and the circular supply of critical minerals.
- Lithium battery black mass processed: Aqua Metals processed 3,200 tons of lithium battery black mass in 2024, up from 1,200 tons in 2023 and zero in 2022. This sharp increase reflects the successful commissioning and 24/5 operation of their Nevada pilot facility, which is the first of its kind in North America to use electricity-powered, water-based electro-hydrometallurgy (AquaRefining™) instead of furnaces or heavy chemicals.
- Lead battery AquaRefining: The company also continued its legacy of lead battery recycling, with volumes rising from 23,000 tons (2022) to 25,000 tons (2024), demonstrating the scalability and reliability of its closed-loop process for multiple battery chemistries.
- GHG emissions reduction vs. pyro: Aqua Metals consistently achieves a 92% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional pyrometallurgical recycling, as validated by Argonne National Lab’s EverBatt model. This is because the process replaces fossil fuels and high-temperature furnaces with renewable electricity, producing far less CO₂ and hazardous waste.
- Water use reduction vs. hydro: The AquaRefining process also uses 95% less water than standard hydrometallurgical methods, thanks to its closed-loop chemistry and the regeneration of process water and reagents. This further reduces the environmental footprint and supports sustainable operations in water-stressed regions.
- Battery-grade lithium hydroxide produced: By 2024, Aqua Metals produced 120 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide-up from 20 tons in 2023 and none in 2022-demonstrating its ability to recover high-purity, directly reusable materials from spent batteries. This is a critical supply for the domestic battery and EV industry.
- Bioremediation/soil cleanup projects: The company expanded its application of closed-loop, clean chemistry to bioremediation, completing 4 soil cleanup projects in 2024 (up from 2 in 2023), showing the broader environmental benefits and versatility of its technology beyond battery recycling.
- Revenue: grew from $7.8 million (2022) to $19.2 million (2024), reflecting both increased recycling volumes and the commercialization of new products and services.