The company’s R&D program is working to recycle the other key elements of lithium-ion batteries.

Aqua Metals Inc., the developer of AquaRefining technology, says it has produced lithium hydroxide from lithium-ion battery black mass at its Innovation Center in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center in Sparks, Nevada. In addition to producing lithium using a patent-pending proprietary process, the company says its R&D program at the Innovation Center is working to recycle the other key elements of lithium-ion batteries, such as cobalt (already plated), nickel, copper and manganese.

Late in 2021, Aqua Metals Inc. signed a collaboration agreement with LiNiCo Corp., McCarran, Nevada, to process lithium-ion battery black mass into high-quality metals.

Earlier in 2021, Aqua Metals invested $2 million, paid in Aqua Metals stock shares, for a 10 percent ownership stake in LiNiCo Corp. as part of the company’s strategy to apply AquaRefining intellectual property to lithium-ion battery recycling.

“This is an important step in demonstrating our proprietary Li AquaRefining process, which we think is environmentally and economically superior to other metals recycling methods,” says Ben Taecker, chief operations and engineering officer of Aqua Metals, which is headquartered in Reno, Nevada. “Our goal is to produce battery precursor grade lithium hydroxide, and these early results indicate we are on track for meeting this goal. This also confirms that we remain on schedule to start running our pilot-scale unit in the coming months.”

As governments and vehicle manufacturers take steps to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles to meet carbon emissions reduction targets, demand for lithium is increasing to the point where lithium shortages are being forecasted for the near term. Aqua Metals cites a report from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence that predicts acute deficits of lithium as early as this year. The price of lithium increased by more than 300 percent in 2021. It currently stands at approximately $58,000 per metric ton. Increased mining activity alone cannot mitigate the shortages, the company says, making recycling critical to meeting future demand. 

“Morningstar Inc. has predicted that lithium-ion demand will likely outstrip production within the next five years, and demand for lithium will only continue to skyrocket as the world transitions from fossil fuels to a renewable energy economy,” says David Regan, Aqua Metal vice president of commercial. “As of today, the only commercially proven recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries is smelting, which has a negative environmental impact and does not recover the lithium or manganese. Applying the proven AquaRefining process to lithium-ion batteries has the potential to be an important industry breakthrough, as we believe it is the only truly sustainable recycling technology under development that recovers all the valuable metals and compounds without using high heat or consuming massive quantities of chemicals that create difficult to manage waste streams.”

Li AquaRefining recycles spent lithium-ion batteries by using the electron as the reagent instead of chemicals or high heat, Aqua Metals says. The emissions-free, room-temperature process uses about one-two-hundredth of the chemicals of a standard hydro process and does not generate the carbon footprint of a high-heat approach. The closed-loop process also recycles the chemicals it uses. 

Despite a quarterly decline, the company produced 9 percent more steel in 2021 than in 2020.

Brazil-based steelmaker Gerdau S.A. has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021, noting that its production of crude steel declined 4 percent from the previous quarter and 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2020. Despite that quarterly decline, the company produced 9 percent more steel in 2021 than in 2020. Its steel shipments also increased 11 percent in 2021 from 2020, however, its fourth-quarter 2021 shipments declined 2 percent from the same period in 2021 and 3 percent from the previous quarter in 2021.

Despite the decrease in shipments, the company’s net sales increased 58 percent in Q4 2021 from Q4 2020 and 79 percent year over year. Gerdau attributes the increase to the global growth in commodities through 2021 and the positive impact from the translation of net sales from its operations in North America influenced by the weaker Brazilian real. Compared with the third quarter of 2021, net sales were relatively stable, which offset the slight decrease in consolidated steel shipments.

Gerdau says its production capacity utilization rate of 74 percent reflects the seasonally weaker quarter, especially in Brazil, as well as the scheduled maintenance typically carried out at some of its units during that time.

The company says the main factors driving the increase in the cost of goods it sold in Q4 of 2021 compared with Q4 2020 were the higher costs for the primary raw materials it uses, including scrap and iron ore, which increased 55 percent and 82 percent, respectively, year over year for the quarter. In relation to Q3 of 2021, the company says the increase in the cost of goods sold is explained mainly by the 28 percent increase in coal costs.

In the conference call to review its 2021 quarterly and annual earnings, Rafael Japur, chief financial officer at Gerdau, said  scrap spreads in North America are at “historically high levels.” He added, “Therefore, our outlook for the next coming quarters at least in 2022, is that these levels will be maintained, driven by the strength in demand. In March, U.S. scrap could increase to be around $30 to $50, which will help sustain the prices in North America. Therefore, our outlook going forward is that this spread at high levels should be maintained.”

Gerdau has noted that scrap will play an important role in meeting its climate change strategy that sets a target to reduce its emissions of CO2 to 0.83 metric tons of CO2 per metric ton of steel produced by 2031. The company, which has several scrap-fed electric arc furnace steel mills in North America, has noted a recycled content figure of more than 70 percent.

The company’s consolidated gross profit and gross margin increased in the quarter compared with Q4 of 2020, which Gerdau says was driven mainly by the strong construction industry in the U.S. and Brazilian markets and by sales to the industrial sector in Brazil.

Gerdau’s consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 61 percent from Q4 2020 to Q4 2021 and 208 percent year over year to $1,011.5 million for the quarter and $4,588.8 million for the year. Its adjusted EBITDA increased 96 percent from Q4 2020 to Q4 2021 and 202 percent year over year to $1,159.4 million and $4,499.9 million, respectively. The company says its adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin for its consolidated operations in Q4 2021 set all-time highs for a fourth quarter, reflecting strong demand for steel in all countries where it operates and its capacity to seize the opportunities arising in the market.

Stopford will use the technology in its hydro-thermal process, CircuPlast, to recycle mixed plastic packaging.

The University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom has licensed the rights to its “supercritical water” technology to Stopford, a U.K. firm that provides comprehensive services to the petrochemical/bulk chemical, oil and gas, nuclear and renewable energy sectors. The company will use the technology to develop a process for recycling mixed plastic packaging that delivers a greater proportion of high-value recycled plastic with less emissions, fewer processing steps than current recycling methods and no solvent residues, according to a news release issued by the university.

The partners have been awarded funding from UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge to enable further development of its process, which Bushra Al-Duri, Ph.D., from the University of Birmingham School of Chemical Engineering, initially developed before it was further developed during a collaborative project with Stopford. 

Above the critical point of 374.5 C and 220 bars (217 atmospheres), water is described as “supercritical,” meaning its properties and operational behavior are completely different from ambient/hot water, according to the news release. Supercritical water can be a solvent for all organic materials, including plastics. Its gas-like penetration power makes it a superior medium to decompose mixtures of complex end-of-life plastics into value-added material that is feedstock for manufacturing new plastics.

Stopford will further develop and scale the hydro-thermal process, CircuPlast, enabling the conversion of nonrecyclable end-of-life plastics into high-value chemicals for use as feedstock for the plastics industry, the university says.

An advanced recycling technology, CircuPlast is thought to be able overcome the limitations of existing recycling processes by enhancing recycling rates, enabling an increase in the amount of recycled content in plastics and maintaining functionality.

Stopford’s Technology & Innovation Director Ben Herbert, Ph.D., says, “This agreement enables Stopford to fast-track the development of the CircuPlast technology to meet the plastics management and sustainability requirements of multiple industry sectors.”

David Coleman, CEO of University Birmingham Enterprise, adds, “The growth of plastics production has long outstripped the capacity for recycling, with the U.K. alone producing over 2 million [metric tons] of plastic packaging waste each year, of which just over half is recycled.  We are delighted the university is working with Stopford to deliver a viable way of recycling much more plastic packaging that will help meet sustainability goals.” 

Al-Duri says, “Supercritical water technology represents the next generation for treatment and recycling of ‘stubborn’, complex and hazardous waste that is currently treated by incineration or sent to landfill.  I am looking forward to working with Stopford on the scientific and operational challenges involved in bringing this technology to market.” 

The project is supported by UKRI’s SSPP Challenge, the largest government investment to support the achievement of the U.K. Plastics Pact with the potential to alter the U.K.’s relationship with, and management of, plastic packaging, the partners say. 

*This article was updated March 2 to reflect the funding award.

New York-based electronics recycler holds content to name its electronic scrap shredder.

Brockport, New York-based Sunnking is holding a “Name the Shredder Contest” designed to allow residents and businesses in the state of New York to submit “their best and most creative names” for the company’s electronic scrap shredder.

According to Sunnking, its shredder “destroys” more than 10 million pounds (5,000 tons) of recyclable devices each year.

All names must be submitted by Friday, March 18. Five finalists will be selected on March 28 after a poll takes place on the Sunnking website. Winners will be announced on Thursday, April 14, 2022.

“We’ve seen people name boats, snowplows [and] zoo animals, so why not give them a chance to enjoy naming the machine that recycles their unused devices?” asks Robert Burns, Sunnking’s marketing director. “The Name the Shredder Contest is a fun way to connect with our community and promote the impact of responsibly recycling their electronics and the data security process behind it.”

Winners will have their shredder name featured on Sunnking’s website and live streaming shredder feed. Since its launch in mid-August last year, Sunnking says its Live Shredder Camera feed has been viewed for more than 500 hours by people “all over the world.”

The contest winner will also receive a Sunnking “swag bag” and his or her choice of either four tickets to the Six Flags Darien Lake amusement park in Corfu, New York, or four tickets to a Rochester Americans hockey game and four tickets to a Rochester Knighthawks lacrosse game of their choice.

Participants have until March 18, also designated as Global Recycling Day, to submit their potentially winning shredder name using a form that can be found on this web page.

Flooring and ceiling products company will consume tissue mill byproducts to make some of its products.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Armstrong World Industries Inc. has announced a partnership with Pennsylvania-based Irving Consumer Products designed to improve the “environmental footprints” of the Macon, Georgia, facilities operated by both companies.

In the second quarter of 2022, Irving, a maker of store-brand tissue, will begin diverting its tissue fiber mill byproducts to Armstrong’s mineral fiber plant. The arrangement will reduce Armstrong’s need to source and purchase old newspapers (ONP) and other scrap paper grades as an input raw material for its ceiling products.

As a result, Armstrong and Canada-based Irving Consumer Products expect to divert more than 3,500 tons of fiber annually from landfill disposal, supporting each firm’s circularity and waste diversion sustainability goals.  

Since 1999, Armstrong has been using recycled paper as a raw material and recycling old ceiling tiles back into its manufacturing process through the Armstrong Ceiling Recycling Program, helping customers meet their own waste reduction targets in the process. The company estimates that more than 200 million square feet of used ceiling materials have been diverted from landfills through the program.

Irving Consumer Products’ manufacturing operations partially involve diverting ash and lime to local farmers to enrich their fields and using postconsumer cardboard to pack its products.

Armstrong Macon Plant Manager William Woolard says, “This partnership is a win-win and a great example of companies working together at a local level to help solve a global problem while improving our own processes. We diversify our raw material stream and save in cost and energy related to shipping heavy material like paper. Irving Consumer Products saves on landfill costs and its fiber byproduct can live another life as Armstrong ceiling tile.”

Irving Consumer Products Macon Finance Manager Greg Kinsman says, “The partnership demonstrates our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint. Continuous improvement and innovation are important parts of our company’s values. We are always looking for new ways to become more efficient, and this partnership will help us move toward even more sustainable practices.”