$12M from DOE helps Princeton NuEnergy tap top scientists and up battery recycling

A New Jersey company is bringing lithium-ion battery recycling into the future with a $12 million Energy Department grant and a team of prestigious scientists.

Princeton NuEnergy is upgrading its patented, plasma-assisted LIB recycling technology into an upcycling process.

Set to commence on April 5, PNE is teaming up with leading scientists from Argonne National Lab, National Renewable Energy Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab and UC Irvine to officially launch its $12 million U.S. Department of Energy EERE (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy) grant to advance and improve the efficiency of its proprietary, plasma-assisted, end-to-end direct recycling and upcycling technology for lithium-ion batteries.

The announcement will take place at the Rutgers EcoComplex in Bordentown with New Jersey Congressman Andy Kim, State Senator Andrew Zwicker, Jeffrey Spangenberger, Group Leader of Materials Recycling, Argonne National Lab Applied Materials Division, and PNE Founder and CEO, Dr. Chao Yan in attendance.

This grant, which was established to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign materials and enhance domestic manufacturing capabilities, is a testament to the U.S. Department of Energy’s support for the potential of PNE’s superior direct recycling technology.

In addition to the $12 million DOE EERE funding, PNE is a sub-recipient of Tennessee Technological University’s DOE award for mobile charging station development.

“Winning the DOE EERE grant is clearly an amazing achievement for the PNE team in a year full of amazing achievements,” Xiaofang Yang, co-founder and CTO of PNE said. “I would, of course, like to express my gratitude to the DOE EERE for believing in the potential of direct recycling and upcycling technology and helping us grow. We are excited to show how we can leverage this technology for the United States’ lithium-ion battery supply chain.”

PNE is a Bordentown-based innovative clean-tech company focused on recycling, repurposing, and commercializing lithium-ion battery (LIB) materials from EVs, consumer electronics, manufacturing scrap, and energy storage batteries.

PNE recently launched America’s first end-to-end direct lithium-ion battery direct recycling production line with Wistron GreenTech in McKinney, Texas. Compared to other LIB recycling technologies, PNE’s direct recycling low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process (LPAS™) significantly reduces cost, environmental waste and CO2 emissions, yielding higher critical material recovery rates and material performance. The 500- ton production line in McKinney, Texas will recycle consumer batteries, LIB manufacturing scrap and spent EV cell batteries.