Princeton NuEnergy (PNE), a US-based battery materials company, has expanded its collaboration with SK Battery America (SKBA), and the aim of the partnership is to keep the scrap from battery production within a closed loop. Under the planned arrangement, PNE will receive the manufacturing scrap that is generated at the SKBA facilities in Commerce, Georgia, and the company is exploring a recycling facility near the manufacturing site.

That facility would be the point at which the loop is closed. It would process the scrap, recover and rejuvenate the cathode active material, and make the material available for a potential return to battery manufacturing, which would help to support a more integrated domestic supply chain. The arrangement has not yet been settled, however, as the two companies are still discussing its technical and commercial framework.

What makes a return to manufacturing possible is the recycling method of PNE. Conventional recycling breaks battery materials down into their constituent elements, whereas the Cathode-to-Cathode direct recycling process is designed to preserve and rejuvenate the engineered structure of the cathode material. The method has also drawn federal backing, since PNE has recently been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to enter award negotiations for up to $50 million, in support of a proposed $110 million project to develop a Cathode-to-Cathode rejuvenation facility in the United States.

The scrap itself would be drawn from the SKBA operations in Commerce. SKBA, a wholly owned subsidiary of SK On, runs electric vehicle battery plants there with a combined annual production capacity of approximately 22 GWh, and it has invested approximately $2.6 billion in those operations. Chao Yan, the Co-Founder and CEO of PNE, has placed the partnership in a wider context. "Our business collaboration with SK Battery America reflects growing interest in direct recycling solutions for U.S. battery manufacturing," he said. "By leveraging PNE's Cathode-to-Cathode process, we aim to support a more localized and circular domestic battery materials supply chain."

For the two companies, the collaboration reflects a shared interest in material circularity, in recovering value from manufacturing scrap, and in strengthening the domestic supply chain for critical battery materials. A localized recycling pathway of this kind, they say, would also reduce the reliance on imported inputs, while it supports U.S. energy security and industrial competitiveness.

Princeton NuEnergy is building a domestic battery materials platform that includes Cathode-to-Cathode direct recycling for Rejuvenated Cathode Active Material and Advanced Black Mass production. The company has received strategic and financial support from Honda Motor Co., Ltd., LKQ Corporation, Samsung, Shell Ventures, Traxys, Wistron Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy.