Key takeaways: 

• Lithium-ion batteries are needed for a lower-carbon future.
•  But they come with a downside: It needs a lot of power to make them, particularly with the mining and refining the metals.

According to a recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Energy, the worldwide lithium battery market is anticipated to grow up to tenfold in the next decade and be required for everything from electric cars to power storage for renewable energy origins like solar and wind.

On the upside, while the cathode materials that keep electricity in the battery degrade, the materials that make them up to don’t. They are infinitely recyclable.

And while some firms are already in the battery-recycling business, one argues it’s not just recycling but “upcycling,” placing raw materials from scrapped lithium-ion batteries back into the supply chain.

That firm, Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements, has developed a process to capture battery metals and develop them into new battery materials instead of just recycling whole features as competitors do. Ascend can then market those materials now to manufacturers.

While the process seems straightforward, it has taken decades to perfect. The company says that ascend tad spent batteries and manufacturing scrap turns them into blackish sand. It then pulls all the pieces of plastic, aluminum, and copper. It leaches out the contaminants, leaving behind the valuable nickel, cobalt, and lithium that make up a battery’s cathode material.