Turning mixed battery waste into manufacturing-ready materials.
Photo credit: Green Li-ion / greenli-ion.com
Green Li-ion is a Singapore-headquartered battery-materials technology company founded in 2020 by Leon Farrant and Dr. Reza Katal. Its modular GREEN HYDROREJUVENATION systems process shredded lithium-ion battery material, known as black mass, directly into products such as precursor cathode active material, NCM hydroxide, graphite, and lithium carbonate. The process is designed to bypass intermediate metal-salt production and return recovered material to battery manufacturing more directly.
The company opened its first commercial-scale installation in Atoka, Oklahoma, in 2024. Green Li-ion and Oklahoma officials describe the site as an operating North American black-mass-to-battery-material plant; industry reporting placed initial capacity at approximately two metric tons of black mass per day, or 730 metric tons annually. Commercial activity has included recycled-material transactions through Metalshub and a binding WMC offtake agreement for Atoka-produced NCM hydroxide through 2030.
Green Li-ion offers its technology through equipment licensing, joint ventures, and toll processing. Its official locations include Singapore, the United States, Germany, South Korea, and Australia. Announced plans to expand Atoka, deploy larger GL Train systems, and supply EcoPro Materials should be treated as prospective: the Atoka expansion has not been independently confirmed, and the EcoPro arrangement was announced as a non-binding letter of intent subject to trials and final agreements.
Green Li-ion combines material circularity with supply-chain localization. Its systems recover battery inputs from black mass and return them as higher-value cathode and anode materials, potentially reducing demand for newly mined nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium, and graphite. Modular installations can also help recyclers process material nearer to battery markets instead of exporting black mass for overseas refining.
The strongest public environmental evidence is a Minviro life-cycle assessment of NMC 622 precursor cathode active material and lithium carbonate modeled for the Atoka process. It found substantially lower climate impact for the modeled precursor material than selected conventional alternatives, but Green Li-ion supplied the process data and Minviro planned a later update using operating data. Results depend on product chemistry, electricity mix, feedstock, allocation choices, and comparator, so they should not be generalized to every facility or battery material.
Green Li-ion’s Atoka installation was described as fully operational at its June 2024 opening, with industry reporting citing capacity of approximately two metric tons of black mass per day, or 730 metric tons per year. A company executive reported recovery of at least 95%, 99% precursor-material purity, and a roughly 12-hour black-mass-to-product cycle; those performance figures have not been independently verified in a published operating study.
Minviro’s panel-reviewed life-cycle assessment estimated 76% lower climate impact for modeled NMC 622 precursor cathode active material than a selected generic hydrometallurgical process and 85%–96% lower impact than selected primary-production routes. Modeled lithium-carbonate performance was less consistent: 20% lower than the selected generic recycling route, but between 300% higher and 69% lower than primary production depending on the benchmark source.
Oklahoma Commerce reported more than 20 jobs created when the plant opened. Metalshub says initial NCM-hydroxide transactions were completed in 2025 and the partnership expanded in 2026 to include black-mass procurement. Planned systems with capacities above the current 730-ton installation, a fourfold Atoka expansion, and future EcoPro supply are not included as achieved impact.
Manufacturing-ready recovered materials
The process produces precursor cathode material, NCM hydroxide, graphite, and lithium carbonate instead of stopping at lower-value intermediate metal salts.
Mixed black-mass processing
Green Li-ion designs its modular systems to accept mixed lithium-ion recycling feedstock, reducing the sorting and preprocessing required before recovery.
Fits existing recycling facilities
Licensing, joint-venture, and toll-processing models allow customers to add higher-value refining without constructing an entirely new processing chain.
Localized critical-material supply
Producing cathode and anode inputs nearer to battery markets can reduce overseas refining dependence and create a higher-value outlet for recovered material.
Locations
