Princeton NuEnergy Inc. has been selected to enter award negotiations for a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support the construction of a pioneering, closed-loop recycling facility in Commerce, Georgia.
The total $110 million project—which includes a $60 million company cost share—will establish a 3,000-tonne-per-year commercial facility utilizing PNE’s proprietary low-temperature plasma-assisted separation (LPAS) technology. The project is projected to create 70 full-time manufacturing jobs and approximately 100 construction roles.
Designed to process nickel-based lithium-ion battery manufacturing scrap, the new facility will recover and rejuvenate cathode active material to return directly to battery production, creating a streamlined, domestic closed-loop supply chain.
Unlike conventional recycling methods that break materials down into basic constituent elements, PNE’s proprietary Cathode-to-Cathode® process preserves and rejuvenates the engineered structure of the cathode material. By locating the facility alongside cell manufacturing operations, PNE can return high-quality, rejuvenated cathode active material back to manufacturers in roughly seven days—at a cost roughly 45% below comparable virgin material.
“This selection represents an important validation of Princeton NuEnergy’s technology and our ability to bring direct recycling to commercial scale,” said Joe Fisher, Chief Commercial Officer of PNE. “By deploying our Cathode-to-Cathode® process alongside battery-cell manufacturing, we can transform manufacturing scrap directly back into high-quality cathode active material while lowering costs and strengthening America’s domestic battery-material supply chain.”
“We are grateful for the Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) and Manufacturing Deployment Office (MDO) support and look forward to bringing this project into operation,” added Dr. Chao Yan, founder and CEO of Princeton NuEnergy.
The Commerce plant will serve as a commercial demonstration of PNE’s modular recycling platform, establishing a foundation for broader U.S. deployment. Following the project’s launch, PNE plans to introduce as many as 10 additional privately financed production lines, potentially scaling total capacity to approximately 30,000 tonnes per year by 2035.
Utilizing over 90% standard industrial equipment for efficient replication, the facility will also integrate advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence to support process optimization and predictive maintenance.
