May 31, 2024: Battery recycler Redwood Materials has partnered with battery manufacturing joint venture, Ultium, to recycle production scrap from its US facilities.

The company said on May 23 it would process the majority of the cathode and anode material scrap from Ultium’s Ohio and Tennessee facilities.

Redwood forecasts that at a 10% scrap rate, these facilities would produce 10,000 tonnes of material annually for the company to recycle and remanufacture into critical battery components for cell manufacturing.

Ultium is a joint venture between auto manufacturer General Motors and South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution and their operations expect to produce more than 80GWh combined of battery cells annually.

Redwood receives the majority of the scrap from its manufacturing process.

As well as gigafactories in Ohio and Tennessee, the company has a third facility under construction in Michigan. With this latest collaboration, Redwood now has contracts with most of North America’s battery cell manufacturers.

As automakers and cell manufacturers continue to ramp up domestic battery production, Redwood says it is ready to support this growth with a sustainable and scalable battery materials process.

As part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, Ultium Cells and Redwood were both selected by the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to jump-start critical battery materials and cell production domestically.