Princeton NuEnergy to Launch Closed-Loop Recycling for SK Battery America's Georgia Scrap

Princeton NuEnergy (PNE) is set to expand its partnership with SK Battery America (SKBA) by taking in manufacturing scrap from the latter’s electric vehicle battery plants in Commerce, Georgia. The two facilities there have a combined annual production capacity of roughly 22 GWh, and the scrap will serve as feedstock for PNE’s closed-loop recycling efforts. The companies are currently discussing the technical and commercial details of the arrangement, which would mark a significant step toward domestic battery material circularity.

At the heart of the plan is PNE’s Cathode-to-Cathode process, a direct recycling method that aims to preserve and rejuvenate the engineered structure of cathode active material rather than breaking it down into raw elements. Traditional recycling typically reduces battery components to their basic constituents, but PNE’s approach is designed to recover cathode material in a form that can be directly reintroduced into battery manufacturing. The company is also exploring the possibility of building a dedicated recycling facility near SKBA’s manufacturing site to process the scrap and return rejuvenated material to the production line.

This collaboration builds on existing momentum. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected PNE for award negotiations of up to $50 million to support a proposed$110-million project to establish a Cathode-to-Cathode rejuvenation facility in the United States. That facility, which was previously announced, is planned for Commerce and would have an annual capacity of 3,000 tonnes of nickel-based battery manufacturing scrap, utilizing PNE’s low-temperature plasma-assisted separation (LPAS) technology. It remains unclear whether the plant being considered near SKBA’s site is the same one backed by the DOE, as neither company’s statements clarify the connection.

“By leveraging PNE’s Cathode-to-Cathode process, we aim to support a more localized and circular domestic battery materials supply chain,” said Chao Yan, co-founder and CEO of PNE. The initiative reflects a broader industry trend toward onshoring battery supply chains and reducing reliance on foreign sources of critical materials. Closed-loop recycling, in which manufacturing scrap is reclaimed and fed back into production, could cut waste and lower the carbon footprint of battery manufacturing.

While the exact timeline and scale of the new facility are still being negotiated, the partnership between PNE and SKBA signals growing interest in sustainable battery production methods. If successful, the model could be replicated at other battery plants across the country, helping to build a more resilient and environmentally friendly domestic battery ecosystem.