Metastable Materials Launches R&D & Innovation Centre in Bengaluru

Urban mining startup Metastable Materials has inaugurated its maiden R&D and Innovation Centre in Bengaluru. The centre will look at accomplishing the multi-fold goals of carrying out equipment fabrication, design and development, and process optimization, among other strategic ambitions. The company’s newly-inaugurated facility, spread over a total area of 5,000 sq. ft., is equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and equipment. It will also include an in-house quality analysis lab to perform regular quality checks of the end-products (extracted materials). There will also be a parallel focus on continuous improvements in terms of process efficiency and yield.

By the end of the current fiscal, FY 2022-23, Metastable Materials aims to ramp-up the facility to run at its full capacity and bolster commercialization optimally for the company. This will also include doubling-up the facility to function as a metal extraction line by the end of 2022. The company will be looking at achieving the capacity to be able to handle the processing of up to 600 tons of end-of-life Lithium-ion batteries annually. This will eventually pave the way to cater to 4 to 6% of India’s end-of-life Li-ion batteries treatment value chain.

The newly-opened facility shall facilitate continuous improvement opportunities for Metastable’s process engineering team to execute regular experiments targeted towards increasing efficiency, yield and purity of the various output materials obtained through the company’s patented technology. Notably, Metastable Materials has innovated a first-of-its-kind, chemical-free technology that in an eco-friendly manner can extract a wide range of valuable materials like Copper, Aluminium, Cobalt, Nickel and Lithium from Lithium-ion batteries. Metastable’s patented technology can provide upto 90% recovery of constituent materials for LiBs across various types of cell chemistries.

Speaking at the inauguration, Shubham Vishvakarma, Founder & Head of Process Engineering, Metastable Materials said, “We at Metastable Materials are delighted and proud to launch our maiden R&D Centre, which will also be serving as our first metal extraction line by the last quarter of 2022. Given that majority of the metals extracted by us from Li-ion batteries have an overall trade deficit and are currently facing a supply crunch in the domestic market and are being imported from other countries at higher prices, we foresee a huge opportunity for unfulfilled demand to be tapped into by offering these commodities at a lower price than the market. And our newly-inaugurated facility will be playing a pivotal role in enabling that and in giving impetus to circular economy. Once technology validation is proven at scale at this facility, Metastable Materials plans to develop India’s urban mining infrastructure based on its new and improved processes over the next two years or so.”

Metastable claims that its long-term mission is to not focus on just closing the recycling loop, but rather bridge the gap between the supply and demand of metals for any industry that require these metals as inputs. With the extraction of metals from dead LiBs based on its flagship process, it iprovides a sustainable alternative to freshly mined metals and attempts to integrate them with the existing industrial supply chains, the company has said. The extracted metals are as good as new ones and can be used to create anything from wires to drugs to jet engines, new batteries. Furthermore, Metastable’s process inherently reduces capital requirements and provides industry-standard efficiency with minimal inputs required.

Metastable Materials has already received interest from several key players in the market for both supply of end-of-life batteries for processing and the purchase of the extracted materials out of them.