Ascend Elements to Launch Lithium Carbonate Production in 2025
Ascend Elements, a Massachusetts-based lithium-battery recycling company, has announced plans to begin producing lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) from used lithium-ion batteries at its Covington facility in 2025. The company aims to produce up to 3,000 metric tons of sustainable, domestic Li2CO3 annually, marking a significant milestone as the first commercial-scale recycled lithium carbonate production in the United States. Currently, the only other domestic source of Li2CO3 is from a mining operation in Nevada.
“This is the first new, domestic source of lithium carbonate in the 21st Century,” said Eric Gratz, co-founder and CTO of Ascend Elements. “This new domestic supply of a critical battery material will help U.S. industries meet growing demand while avoiding the possibility of tariffs on imported materials.”
Li2CO3 is a vital material used in advanced batteries for grid-scale energy storage, electric vehicles, boats, and aircraft. Ascend Elements’ proprietary lithium recovery process is designed to produce significantly lower carbon emissions compared to conventional methods such as mining and brine extraction. Preliminary assessments show that Ascend’s process generates just 2.27 kg of CO2 emissions per 1 kg of Li2CO3, compared to 16.7 kg for spodumene mining and 3.6 kg for Chilean brine extraction. “Our current process of lithium extraction from used lithium-ion batteries is about 86% less carbon-intensive compared to spodumene mining and 37% less carbon-intensive compared to Chilean brine extraction,” Gratz added.
The Covington facility, one of North America’s largest lithium-ion battery recycling plants, has been operational since August 2022. With a capacity to recycle up to 30,000 metric tons of battery materials annually—equivalent to approximately 70,000 EV battery packs—the plant is central to Ascend Elements’ closed-loop battery material solutions. Beyond recycling, the company also produces sustainable battery materials such as NMC pCAM and NMC CAM using recycled inputs.
Founded in 2015, Ascend Elements continues to lead innovations in sustainable battery material production, reinforcing the U.S. supply chain for critical materials essential to the energy transition.
