January 30, 2025: Ace Green Recycling is to recycle batteries from African electric motorbikes company Spiro, under a partnership announced on January 27.

Ace said it had been selected to recycle lithium ion and LFP batteries from Spiro’s end-of-life batteries and waste material from its battery manufacturing in Africa.

As Spiro’s ‘exclusive global preferred recycling partner’, Ace will also help develop recycling centers deploying its proprietary ‘LithiumFirst’ tech near Spiro’s battery collection hubs.

Spiro CEO Kaushik Burman said the agreement was part of the firm’s commitment to building a sustainable manufacturing chain, while developing the largest electric mobility fleet in Africa.

Spiro which signed heads of terms for a $50 million debt facility with the African Export-Import Bank last May, said it has more than 18,000 e-motorbikes and 45,000 battery swap facilities already in operation across several African countries.

Nishchay Chadha, CEO of Ace, said the partnership represented his firm’s foray into the African market — although the company said in 2022, as reported by Batteries International, that it was teaming up with Tabono Investments to build and operate battery recycling facilities for lead and lithium ion batteries in South Africa.

Ace claims its LithiumFirst technology is based on room temperature operations in a fully electrified hydrometallurgical process producing no Scope 1 carbon emissions, and with zero liquid and solid waste.

The firm has said the process recovers lithium at levels of around 75%, producing lithium carbonate of purities exceeding 99%, which is fed back into the battery materials value chain.

Earlier this month, Ace said it had finalized a lease agreement to build what would be India’s biggest LFP battery recycling plant.

The company plans to establish 10,000 tonnes of LFP battery recycling capacity annually in India by 2026.