Nth Cycle Sets Out to Pump Domestic Critical Metals Supply ChainNth Cycle Sets Out to Pump Domestic Critical Metals Supply Chain

Critical metals refining company Nth Cycle is working to bring this industry to the States.  At the core of its model is a cheaper, cleaner electrochemical process that can work with multiple metals, though the focus is on a couple of them for now.

Arlene Karidis, Freelance writer

January 15, 2025

6 Min Read
NthCycle
NthCycle

As the U.S. rushes toward an electrified economy, industries are hungry for critical metals. But there is no domestic supply chain to feed that demand, with one missing, essential link being refineries. Most refiners can’t justify the investment because they can’t latch onto enough feedstock.

It’s cheaper to export to Asia with its gargantuan, co-located mines and refineries.

Critical metals refining company Nth Cycle is working to bring this industry to the States.  At the core of its model is a cheaper, cleaner electrochemical process that can work with multiple metals, though the focus is on a couple of them for now.

Nth Cycle’s Megan O’Connor says their new Ohio facility is the world’s first to make a premium product from scrap nickel and cobalt called MHP. It’s sought by clean energy, defense, and other markets and today is sourced mainly from China.

The technology does not depend on huge centralized systems like those in Asia. Rather, the team plans to build on-site modular units wherever end-of-life metals are, sized for each recycler’s or OEM’s capacity. They can be adjusted to fluctuating feedstock volumes to process more or less as needed.

The first commercial-scale refining facility launched in September 2024, and the ambition is to deploy another five or six projects at partners’ sites over the next two years.

O’Connor and her co-founders are looking to cast a wide net, both geographically and in the way of types of metals they will process.  It will take diversity in feedstocks to step up to growing demand.

“Batteries are one source. But unfortunately, recycling all the end-of-life batteries available to us is not going to get us there. There's this whole other massive market of scrap that is not getting recycled. And we are hyper focused on these other materials,” O’Connor says.

Nth Cycle targets nickel and cobalt for now, as they are in huge demand across multiple industries. Nickel and cobalt are used in stainless steel production; to build wind turbines, solar panels, ships, electric vehicle batteries, and in everyday electronic devices among a near-exhaustive list of applications.

Scrap companies and manufacturers want that upgraded product for these and other applications, but they tell O’Connor they don't necessarily want to refine it themselves. That's where Nth Cycle comes in.

The company will own and operate the plants, and recyclers and OEMs pay a processing fee based on kilograms of scrap.

“So, we take on all the operational risks. We process and upgrade it for them, and they will own the products coming out.  You can think of us as a refining partner for the recycling world,” she says.

You might say O’Connor, named one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business, has cracked the code on metals refining.

At the heart of the breakthrough solution is the technology itself.

Nth Cycle's electro-extraction leverages electricity instead of fossil fuels. And each “Oyster” cell as it’s called can be tuned to separate and recover a specific metal or group of them, ultimately able to process a spectrum of critical metals sought across multiple industries.

Refining plants overseas and those being built domestically don't have this flexibility. They are designed to process one kind of feedstock for one industry (EVs) at a fixed volume, O’Connor says.

She and her partners believe that is holding the world back in accessing enough material to get product out to enough sectors fast. And timing is critical. China continues to tighten export controls on metals, with more restrictions anticipated if the Trump administration implements trade bans as promised. 

Innovators are realizing that not only is there a breadth of products to keep up with, but those products are fast changing.  

“We had to develop a technology that could handle that variability. So, when these evolving EV batteries and vehicles come off the road, and evolving turbines come out of wind farms, we can process them,” O’Connor says.

It has been argued that transitioning to a clean energy economy will require both tapping end-of life metals, and pulling raw materials from the earth. O’Connor agrees. Nth Cycle plans to market to mining companies too, also partnering with them on-site aiming to improve yields, unlock stranded assets, and extend mine-life.

It's been six years since O’Connor started on her current path. The light bulb switched on when she was a graduate student at Duke University and listening to manufacturing giants talk at a Green Electronics Summit.

Apple, Dell, Intel—all the large OEMs were there.  They were discussing sustainability issues they saw coming down the line.

“They all said the same thing—supply of critical minerals is going to be a huge problem for them. ‘Where are we going to get cobalt, nickel, and lithium for our small electronic devices when EVs will use orders of magnitude more material? [And of what we can get], what are we going to do with it at the end-of-life?’” she recalls.

So began her new research focus, then the conception of what launched as Nth Cycle with funding from the Department of Energy.

Other innovators are working on their own ideas to pump domestic metal supplies.

Phoenix Tailings developed and is piloting a technology to process rare earth metals and nickel from mining waste. It’s done leveraging water and recyclable solvents that recover the material. Then heat and electricity are used to purify it.

Aqua Metals processes nickel, cobalt, and lithium from ground batteries to make new battery materials. In December 2024 the startup announced it “successfully completed a multi-week, 24/7 continuous pilot facility campaign” and posted some results.

Clean Energy Ventures (CEV) funds global climate technology developers working to mitigate 2.5 gigatons of CO2e by 2050. CEV manages over $415 million in assets and has funded 31 North American and European early-stage companies, with Nth Cycle among them.

“Nth Cycle has seen exceptional growth and development since our original investment in 2020. [The company] has all four elements an investor is seeking in a climate tech innovation: a large market, a winning team, a novel technology, and the potential for massive impact on greenhouse gas emissions,” says Daniel Goldman, co-founder and managing partner, Clean Energy Ventures.

Goldman expects to see rapid acceleration of work to develop domestic sources of critical minerals and other battery materials.

“Roughly 90 percent of critical minerals today are mined or refined in China and other foreign markets. This is a national security issue with bi-partisan government and private markets support.

“We believe these new technologies create a competitive advantage and, combined with domestic policy focus, are set to expand dramatically,” he says.

It will take the proverbial village to really scale. All aware of that, O’Connor says, “The entire vertical value chain is needed here in the U.S. and Europe. So, we're excited by the progress that folks are making and look forward to seeing what others are doing over the next couple of years as we deploy more projects as well. We need every single piece of this value chain here in the States.”

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About the Author

Arlene Karidis

Freelance writer, Waste360

Arlene Karidis has 30 years’ cumulative experience reporting on health and environmental topics for B2B and consumer publications of a global, national and/or regional reach, including Waste360, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, Baltimore Sun and lifestyle and parenting magazines. In between her assignments, Arlene does yoga, Pilates, takes long walks, and works her body in other ways that won’t bang up her somewhat challenged knees; drinks wine;  hangs with her family and other good friends and on really slow weekends, entertains herself watching her cat get happy on catnip and play with new toys.

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