Oakville, Ont.’s Saint Jean Carbon working on recycled lithium-ion battery

OAKVILLE, Ont.—Canadian cleantech company Saint Jean Carbon Inc. is working on a new lithium-ion battery using recycled material from spent electric vehicle batteries and its own recycled anode material.

Late last week, the company, which is engaged in energy storage research as well as several graphite and lithium mining projects, said it has partnered with an undisclosed battery manufacturer to design a high-performance lithium-ion battery it hopes will cut down on raw material needs in the booming electrical vehicle market.

“We have always had concerns about the significant amount of raw materials needed for lithium-ion batteries, frankly; making the environmentally sound energy storage devices, not so environmentally friendly when you dispose of them,” Paul Ogilvie, the company’s CEO, said in a statement.

Often referred to as “upcycling,” the Oakville, Ont. company plans to dismantle an electric car’s power pack and use the raw materials along with its own anode material to re-engineer a functional battery. Saint Jean and its partner will then test the battery with recycled components against an identical battery built with new raw material over 10,000 cycles.

“Having the ability to take recycled materials, reengineer them and repurpose to build a high performance lithium-ion battery (HPL) would be a first and would greatly change the way we look at the raw material chain in energy storage applications and how the raw material will affect the cost of electric vehicles,” the company said.

If demonstrated successfully, the company would then look to put the the battery to the test under the hood of a functional electric vehicle.

While certain automakers, including BMW and Nissan, have already re-purposed spent EV batteries for use in stationary energy storage systems, Saint Jean claims its upcycled battery would be the first to return to the road.

The company expects to complete the new battery in approximately six months.