Plasma Recycling Powers US Battery Comeback

Princeton NuEnergy scales plasma recycling to recover 95% of cathode materials and strengthen domestic battery production

25 Feb 2026

America wants more batteries and fewer foreign inputs. As electric-vehicle sales grow and federal subsidies favour domestic production, the question is no longer whether to recycle batteries, but how.

Most recycling today is blunt. Smelting uses high heat to melt down spent cells; chemical leaching dissolves them. Both methods recover valuable metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt. But they reduce complex cathode materials to their basic elements. Manufacturers must then rebuild them into battery-grade powders, adding cost, energy use and time.

Princeton NuEnergy, a New Jersey-based firm, is betting on a subtler approach. Its low-temperature plasma process seeks to preserve much of the cathode’s original crystal structure. Rather than breaking materials apart and starting again, the company aims to return them to production in a form closer to their original state. The goal, as described by its chief executive, Chao Yan, is to retain the highest value component of the battery in its functional form.

In principle, this “direct recycling” could cut both emissions and expense. The firm says its process has achieved recovery rates of around 95% or higher, depending on the battery chemistry. It now operates a commercial-scale facility in New Jersey with capacity in the thousands of tonnes per year, handling production scrap and selected end-of-life batteries.

It enters a crowded field. Redwood Materials, Li-Cycle and others are expanding across America, helped by incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, which rewards domestic battery material production and recycling. As capacity grows, competition is shifting. The contest is less about whether metals can be extracted and more about cost per tonne, product quality and whether recycled output is ready to go straight back into a gigafactory.

Challenges remain. End-of-life batteries vary widely in chemistry, design and condition. Sorting and processing them consistently at scale is difficult. Any direct-recycling method must cope with this variability without sacrificing quality.

Still, the direction of travel is clear. Spent batteries are increasingly viewed not as hazardous waste but as strategic feedstock. If plasma and similar techniques can prove economical at scale, they may help close a crucial loop in America’s battery supply chain.