Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 31, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 17 T E C H N O L O G Y & I N N O V A T I O N F A C T B O O K BY KEVIN KOCZWARA WBJ Staff Writer Y an Wang had a feeling. Ten years ago, the Worces- ter Polytechnic Institute professor of mechanical and materials engineering knew it was only a matter of time before lithium-ion batteries would become an even bigger part of our everyday life. e batteries were already in laptops, smartphones, and baby monitors, but an even bigger market awaited: cars. Wang foresaw how they'd fit into the future of electric vehicles, and his hunch Central Mass. companies are investing billions of dollars to support the rapidly growing electric vehicle market was when the technology caught up and the costs dropped, there would be a market for battery research. "Eleven or 12 years ago, not many people were interested in battery recy- cling, to be honest," Wang said. "But I convinced myself of two things: One is I believe that there will be a big win for EVs. I was convinced eventually the in- dustry, the auto industry, will adopt EVs. "And the second thing I said was it is a matter of time that we need to recycle those batteries because the lithium bat- teries in the EVs can [work] eight years, 10 years, but eventually they have to be recycled. If I trust the EV industry, may- be it's not today; maybe it's tomorrow," he said. With that feeling, Wang started dig- ging into recycling. Lithium batteries are made up of materials not ubiquitous around the globe. Countries, govern- ments, and economies would need to mine and move them, and they'd be held at the whim of trade and supply chains. Cobalt, graphite, and nickel are just a few of the rare metals used needing to be recycled. "e U.S. produces 10% of lithium batteries in the globe, but we don't pro- duce any of those materials," Wang said. "We produce less than 1%. at means we have to rely on other countries and have to import those critical resources so if we can develop an internal, domes- tic material supply chain, I think it will be good for the EV industry in the U.S." Spinning out a company Wang's research led to the 2015 cre- ation of the company Ascend Elements in Westborough, which recycles battery materials. Ascend has grown into a global player, is building a $1-billion, 500,000-square-foot manufacturing Battery boom 0 5M 10M 15M 20M 25M 30M '21 '23 '25 '27 '29 '30 26,430,756 Projected U.S. electric vehicle sales '22 '28 '24 '26 EV sales Source: Edison Electric Institute Continued on page 18 Yan Wang first joined Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2011 and is now director of its Electrochemical Energy Laboratory. PHOTO | COURTESY OF WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

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