Why Black Mass Separation Is No Longer the Future—It’s Already Here

For years, the conversation around battery recycling has been dominated by anticipation: When will the technology catch up? When will black mass separation become commercially viable? When will the science be ready?

The truth—often missed outside our industry—is that the science isn’t emerging anymore. It’s already here. Black mass separation is actively being done today, and with impressive results. What is emerging now is the race to make these processes cleaner, cheaper, more scalable, and more circular.

At Recyclus Group, we are stepping directly into this moment with a twin-track approach to black mass partnerships. Unlike a single-technology bet, our strategy acknowledges something essential:

Innovation is happening fast—but cost-out leadership has not yet been won.

Two dominant chemical routes currently exist for extracting valuable metals from NMC-based black mass:

• Alkaline-based separation –

Our partner, Mint Innovation in project COMET is at the forefront of this approach.

• Acid-based separation – BatX, our potential partner in India, is demonstrating strong early performance in this space.

Both pathways successfully extract high-value materials such as nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium. Both are viable at commercial scale. And both could play a pivotal role in the circular battery economy.

What no one can answer definitively—yet—is the key commercial question:

Which method will deliver the purest end-product at the most cost-effective rate?

Until that question is settled, betting on only one would be premature. And so, Recyclus is doing what long-term industrial thinking demands: backing both.