Recycled Battery Materials Achieve Performance Comparable to New

Princeton NuEnergy's DOE-Supported LIB Direct Recycling Research Achieves Remarkable Milestones with Argonne

BORDENTOWN, N.J., May 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Princeton NuEnergy Inc. ("PNE", "company") today announced results from pouch cell tests conducted by Argonne National Laboratory which show excellent discharge capacity retention using cathode material directly recycled via PNE's unique low-temperature plasma technology. Discharge capacity retention refers to the ability of a battery to retain its full charge capacity after a number of charge and discharge cycles. PNE's patented Cathode-to-Cathode™ direct recycling technology delivered a discharge capacity retention of 83.66% from LCO batteries (used predominantly in consumer electronics) and 88.9% from NCM batteries (used predominantly in electric vehicles) after conducting over 1,000 deep cycles, these results are on par with Li-ion batteries produced with virgin materials. 

PNE is a U.S.-based, innovative clean-tech company focused on the direct recycling of lithium-ion batteries sourced from manufacturing scrap, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and energy storage solutions. As the world shifts towards electrification, the global market for Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is expected to soar past $200 billion by 2030! The demand for minerals such as lithium will continue to outstrip the available supply. Recycling LIB materials will be crucial to power the clean-tech economy, reduce pricing pressures and minimize environmental impact. 

Dr. Xiaofang Yang, PNE's Co-founder and CTO, remarked, "We work very hard at PNE to ensure that our rejuvenated materials are of the highest quality. The results from Argonne show that in addition to providing exceptional price and ESG benefits, we are producing some of the highest performing cathode material on the market."

Dr. Andrew Jansen, Senior Chemical Engineer added, "Argonne National Laboratory has long been an advocate for direct recycling and it pleases us to see these test results. PNE's rejuvenated cathode material shows very comparable cyclability to pristine commercial material and demonstrates that PNE's direct recycling process can recover the electrochemical performance."

About Princeton NuEnergy

Princeton NuEnergy (PNE) is a U.S.-based, innovative clean-tech company founded out of Princeton University in 2019, launching pilot production in 2022 as the first end-to-end, production-scale direct recycling line in the U.S. PNE is quickly revolutionizing the critical materials supply chain with its patented direct recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries. PNE's patented low temperature plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) produces battery-grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing. PNE's direct recycling process delivers recycling efficiency rates of over 95%, exceptional ESG performance, at half the cost and a much lower environmental footprint vs. conventional methods. 

About Argonne National Laboratory

ANL seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

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SOURCE Princeton NuEnergy