The company is the first private-sector company to be included in the study, which partners it with two US national laboratories and two universities.

The project is known as the ‘Lithium-ion battery disassembly, remanufacturing, and lithium & cobalt recovery project'.

The company said the project would focus on developing an economic recovery strategy for critical materials in end-of-use lithium-ion batteries from electric and hybrid electric vehicles and other consumer goods such as electric bicycles and power tools.

The project will start immediately, under the aegis of the Critical Materials Institute, an energy innovation hub, led by Ames Laboratory.

"We're honored to be working with world-renowned national labs and leading US universities on an issue that will dramatically impact our ability to meet rising material demand for lithium, cobalt, manganese and nickel," AMY CEO Larry Reaugh said.

AMY's partners include Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Idaho National Lab, with support from Purdue University and Case Western Reserve University.

Using a proprietary combination of reagents and unit operations, AMY can extract all cathode metals at battery-grade purity. The company is positioning itself to capitalise on its patent-approved technology and proprietary know-how with the aimof becoming the industry leader in recycling spent electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries.