Princeton NuEnergy Breaks Ground on $110M Plasma-Based Battery Recycling Plant in Georgia

A $110 million battery recycling facility is taking shape in Commerce, Georgia, backed by a $50 million grant from the US Department of Energy. The project will be developed by Princeton NuEnergy and centres on a low-temperature plasma process that restores cathode structures from spent lithium-ion cells — an approach that sidesteps the conventional pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical routes that dissolve or smelt battery materials into their constituent metals.

The plant will handle 3,000 tonnes of nickel lithium-ion battery manufacturing scrap per year. Because cathode material is recovered in usable form rather than reduced to elemental feedstocks, the processing cycle compresses to roughly seven days and active cathode material production costs fall by 45 percent against newly mined equivalents. Output will be nickel-manganese-cobalt material destined for domestic supply chains.

Construction will support 100 jobs, with 70 permanent manufacturing positions to follow once the facility is operational. Princeton NuEnergy’s roadmap includes adding up to ten production lines, lifting total recycling capacity to 30,000 tonnes annually by 2035.

The DOE grant is part of a wider federal effort to reduce US dependence on foreign processing hubs for critical minerals — a strategic priority as domestic battery manufacturing expands.

Source: PV Magazine USA