Battery recycling and black mass recovery

BASF, Redwood Materials, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd, Umicore AG and Li Cycle Corporation are among the active companies. Their approaches span direct recycling, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy and mechanical pretreatment. BASF has patented electrode materials made with directly recycled active materials, while Redwood Materials recovers battery metals for reuse in supply chains.

Redwood Materials, Princeton NuEnergy and Northvolt are identified as startups working in battery recycling. Redwood Materials recovers metals from battery scrap and end-of-life batteries; Princeton NuEnergy focuses on direct recycling; and Northvolt developed recycling operations for production scrap and end-of-life batteries. These profiles indicate different routes, rather than a single measure of commercial promise.

Central South University, Tsinghua University and Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS are active research organizations in this field. Central South University has worked on integrated pyrolysis–hydrometallurgy and LFP black-mass upcycling. Tsinghua University has published research on electrochemical strategies for spent LFP batteries, while Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS has investigated recovery routes for spent batteries.

Grant data records $936,054,446 across 329 grants since 2020. A separate funding-round aggregate lists $46,711,945,317 across 47 rounds, but the listed rounds include projects that are not clearly related to battery recycling. The grant total is therefore the more useful indicator of public funding associated with this topic.

Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co. leads the listed patent holders with 64 patents, followed by Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology Co. with 61. BASF holds 45, while POSCO and Ascend Elements Inc. each hold 25. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd is also among the leading holders, with 23 patents.

Patent activity declined 42.5% over the last 12 months compared with the previous 12 months, while publications grew 25.7% over the same comparison. The figures point to a divergence between patenting and research output, not a halt in technical development. Recent publications continue to examine black-mass characterization, selective leaching and cathode regeneration.

Recent developments include bioleaching mixed black mass for cathode regeneration and graphite recovery, reported by Nanyang Technological University in September 2026, and CO2-assisted ascorbic-acid leaching paired with NCM811 regeneration, reported by Shanghai University that month. A September 2026 pilot by Cirba Solutions and General Motors also tested returning recovered minerals from end-of-life batteries to manufacturing.

The main approaches are mechanical pretreatment, pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, direct recycling and electrochemical recovery. Mechanical processing prepares feedstock; pyrometallurgy uses heat; hydrometallurgy uses leaching and solution separation; direct recycling aims to preserve cathode materials; and electrochemical recovery uses controlled reactions. Their trade-offs include energy use, selectivity, impurity control and the value retained in recovered products.

The United States leads the listed activity with 64,751 documents, followed by China with 22,961 and the United Kingdom with 21,922. Germany and Japan are also prominent, with 20,874 and 16,296 documents respectively. These counts indicate where activity is recorded, but do not by themselves measure processing capacity or the volume of material recycled.

The listed applications include electric vehicles, stationary energy storage, consumer electronics and battery manufacturing scrap. Electric vehicles are the largest application by recorded activity, with 22,474 documents; stationary energy storage has 5,581, and consumer electronics has 4,826. Manufacturing scrap is another feedstock, with recovery methods intended to return materials to battery production.