Aqua Metals celebrate grand opening of $30 million Nevada battery recycling plant

By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

August 02, 2016 08:00:22 AM

SAN DIEGO (Scrap Monster): Oakland, California-based Aqua Metals Inc. has announced opening of Bay Area, Nevada battery recycling plant. The facility is located in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) in McCarran. The company had purchased 11.7 acres of land for the facility in June last year. The ground-breaking ceremony of the facility was held during end-August 2015.

The new $29.6 million AquaRefinery battery recycling plant is spread over 125,000 square-feet building. The plant is expected to produce lead at 80 metric tons per day by end-2016 and is expected to double its production to 160 metric tons per day by 2018, thereby creating additional rural jobs in the region.

The plant employs patented AquaRefining technology which ensures higher product yield and better product at minimized operation cost. The new technology is expected to eliminate toxic waste such as lead dust, sulfur dioxide and greenhouse gases when compared with the traditional smelting process. According to the company, the proprietary AquaRefining technology also reduces production cost significantly. It uses electro-chemical process to produce lead from recovered batteries, mostly from automobiles. As per reports, Aqua Metals is already in talks with Interstate Batteries and Battery Systems to ensure supply of old batteries to the plant.

The collected batteries will be fed to a machine which will tear them apart, separating the liquid sulfuric acid in tanks and plastic casing. This will be converted into pellets and recycled. The process also separates hard metallic lead alloy, melts them and turn into ingots. The innovative technology is also capable of producing a pure lead paste from the recycled lead. The AquaRefining process had won Platts Rising Star Award this year.

The project had received $10 million in loan from Green Bank in conjunction with a 90% loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development.

Meantime, latest statistics released by Call2Recycle, Inc. indicates that battery recycling during the initial six-month period of the year totaled 7.3 million pounds in North America, touching a new record. The battery collection and recycling program recorded 20% increase during the first six months of the year. The Call2Recycle battery recycling program has diverted nearly 115 million pounds of single-use and rechargeable batteries from US and Canadian landfills over the past 20 years.

Canada recycled 3.2 million pounds of batteries during the initial six-month period of 2016, significantly higher by 24% when compared with the previous year. Quebec reported record collection of 1.3 million pounds. Battery collection in Manitoba increased significantly by 52% year-on-year. British Colombia and Ontario too recorded double-digit growth in recycling rates.

In the US, the battery collection by retailers and municipalities surged higher by 17% and 147% respectively over the previous year. The high recycling rate is partly attributed to the new Vermont law which made it mandatory for producers to finance the collection and recycling of batteries. The State of Vermont reported a collection of 54,000 pounds during Jan-June ’16, even higher than the collection recorded during the entire year 2015.