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Ascend Elements Offered Public Funding for Battery Materials Facility in Poland
Circular Energy Storage- May 8
- 4 min read
The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology in Poland has proposed up to USD 320 million (approximately 1.22 billion PLN) in financial support to Ascend Elements for the construction of a precursor cathode active material (pCAM) manufacturing facility in Poland. The company plans to use its proprietary co-precipitation technology to produce nickel, manganese, and cobalt (NMC) pCAM from recycled batteries and battery scrap at the new site.
The proposed subsidy is offered under the European Union’s Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF), which supports initiatives contributing to the EU’s transition to a low-carbon economy. Ascend Elements has already identified a location for the facility, which would be its first pCAM plant in Europe.
So far, no project timelines or total investment figures have been disclosed.
Currently, Ascend Elements operates a pre-processing plant in Poland through a 50/50 joint venture with Luxembourg-based Elemental Holdings. The joint venture, which goes under the name AE Elementals is also planning to set up another pre-processing plant in Germany. The planned pCAM facility, however, will be solely owned and operated by Ascend Elements. This is noteworthy, as Elemental Holding’s separate material recovery project was recently selected as one of the 47 strategic initiatives under the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act.
The jointly operated pre-processing facility in Zawiercie was originally developed by Elemental Holding and was intended to expand to include the recovery of cobalt and nickel metals, lithium sulphate, and manganese oxide, a process flow very different to the co-precipitation technology Ascend Elements has championed. This broader project also includes the processing of electronic waste and PGM scrap. Elemental has received €25 million and €52 million in loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and €290 million in equity funding from EBRD, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Polish Development Fund (PFR).
Ascend Elements is building a precursor plant in Kentucky in the US that likely shares a similar flow sheet to the one planned in Poland. That facility is backed by a $316 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Initially, it was also intended to include cathode production, but in March this year, the company announced it would withdraw those plans as it mutually agreed with the DOE to cancel a $164 million grant designated for the this plant, citing a saturated market for cathode materials but continued demand for precursor production to support local supply chains.
In Europe, establishing a precursor facility that uses recycled inputs such as black mass could represent a key development for the region’s recycling sector. It would be a necessary step toward closing the battery materials loop and reintroducing recovered materials into new batteries. Currently, Umicore operates the only active precursor plant on the continent in Kokkola, Finland. BASF’s facility in Harjavalta, Finland, has been mothballed, pending final permits and improved market conditions.
At Circular Energy Storage we have in recent reports and presentations raised questions about the feasibility of further build-outs in the short term. Production costs for precursors, cathodes, and cells remain significantly higher in Europe compared to South Korea and China. These cost differentials—at a time when automakers face pressure to match EV profitability with that of internal combustion engine vehicles—have led to investor caution. As recently as April, Chinese firm CNGR, the world’s largest precursor manufacturer, cancelled plans to build a facility in Hamina, Finland, through a joint venture with Finnish Minerals Group.
Similarly, Orano and Chinese battery materials company XTC have not yet taken a final investment decision on their planned joint project in northern France including cathode and precursor production as well as material recovery operations.
The growing adoption of LFP cells outside of China – such as LG Energy Solution's new production line in Poland and several new EV models launched by Stellantis – adds further complexity and could increase competitive pressure on NMC material suppliers.
Ascend Elements may benefit from its relatively independent market position, which could make its recycled-content precursor materials attractive to local cathode producers in Europe. Its location in Poland may also make it ideal for processing of production scrap from battery plants in Poland, Germany and Hungary. However given that well positioned players such as BASF and Umicore, the only companies in Europe with both cathode production and recycling operations, have found it necessary to suspend their expanded material recovery plants shows that the midstream stages of battery production including recycling in Europe are challenging. Not only from a cost perspective but also due to the limited access to the amounts of feedstock required for larger material recovery operations. In both the US and Europe we have lately seen several projects that have been granted significant financial support turning this support down amid a slowing EV market. Therefore we believe the realisation of the plant remains uncertain.
