MECAWARE

MECAWARE is a French battery recycling company that uses patented chemical technologies to extract metals from battery production scrap and end-of-life batteries. The company’s process is powered by CO2 captured during the recycling of critical battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, aluminum, and copper.

MECAWARE captures CO2 from industrial flue gases from customers’ industrial units to separate metals by mineral carbonation. The captured CO2 generates tailored extractants that bind each metal of the deposit. The company had plans to establish its pre-industrialization facility in Vénissieux, France to analyze the feasibility of its technology by 2025. In addition, the company intended to open its first factory with a production capacity of 8,000 tons of metal per year in late 2026.

As of October 2023, MECAWARE held four patents: 1) eCO2 - Chem for CO2 capture and separation chemistry technology, 2) eCO2 - Prec for continuous precipitation process, 3) eCO2 - Leach for CO2-assisted leaching, and 4) eCO2 - Strip for lithium-ion batteries recycling.

Key customers and partnerships

MECAWARE has partnered with VERKOR, MTB Manufacturing, and two research laboratories to lead the Scrap CO2MET project, an industrial unit for recycling and reusing production scrap from Gigafactories.

Funding and financials

The company’s latest funding round was in October 2023, when it raised EUR 40 million (~USD 42.2 million) in a Series A round led by Crédit Mutuel Innovation and PI2 Fund to start operations at MECAWARE's pilot plant (Gigafactories Scrap – ScrapCO2MET project) in 2025.