The Future is a Closed Loop.
Where AI meets the physical world to recover the materials civilization runs on.
Conventional Recycling Is Destroying the Value Inside Every Battery.
Today's standard routes, hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy, were designed for cobalt-rich batteries. They shred everything together regardless of chemistry, destroy the cathode crystal structure, and produce a single contaminated output: black mass. Worth $3,000–8,000 per ton.
LFP batteries (projected to be 81% of all input by 2046) produce near-zero value through these routes. The market has moved. The process hasn't.
Cathode structure destroyed
Shredding permanently destroys the crystal lattice. Direct recycling, the highest-value pathway, becomes impossible once you shred.
LFP produces near-zero value
LFP has no cobalt or nickel. Processing it through hydromet is barely profitable. Through pyro, it is effectively a disposal cost.
Everything contaminated
When cathode, anode, and casing are shredded together, copper and aluminium lose premium scrap value and dilute the output.
The Intelligence Layer Powering the Next Generation of Material Recovery.
Direct recycling requires single-chemistry, safety-screened feedstock. CircuLab AI is built to provide it. Before anything enters your process.
SentryCell™
Designed to confirm battery chemistry at intake using multi-modal XRF and computer vision, and simultaneously screen for leakage, fumes, and bulging cells before they reach your line.
SortCell™
Built to route each battery in real time into one of five output lanes: NMC direct recycle, LFP direct recycle, high-SOH second life, mixed chemistry hydromet, or damaged cell isolation.
RecycleCell™
Designed around AI-guided adaptive robotics for cell-level disassembly, extracting cathode sheets intact, preserving crystal structure for direct recycling and maximizing purity across six separate output streams.
Direct Recycling Needs Sorted Feedstock. We Provide It.
At 50,000 Tons Per Year, the Numbers Are Material.
Battery-grade LFP cathode powder recovered via direct recycling is worth $10,000–15,000 per ton, compared to near-zero through conventional routes. The gap between conventional and direct recycling economics compounds every year as LFP volume grows.
Source: ICCT, 2023 · BloombergNEF · DOE Vehicle Technologies Office
We Are Selecting Pilot Partners for 2026.
CircuLab AI is in active development and working with a select group of partners to deploy our technology at the front of the battery recovery stream. If you process lithium-ion batteries at volume, we want to talk.
Accepted into the MIT CSAIL Startup Connect Program