Battery recycler Cirba Solutions appointed Troy Thennis as its senior vice president of growth projects & technology on Tuesday.
The battery management and materials processing company was formed in June 2022 as part of multiple deals between Heritage Battery Recycling, Retriev Technologies, and Battery Solutions.
“Cirba Solutions, which signifies where circularity and batteries come together, is the most experienced and trusted company to handle the entire battery management process for our customers and we have the expertise to grow our services to meet the scope and scale of the upcoming future,” Cirba CEO David Klanecky said in a statement at the time of the company’s launch.
How Cirba Solutions was formed
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October 2021
Retrieve Technologies and Heritage Battery Recycling merge, creating what the company called the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America. They continued to operate under the Retrieve brand
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March 2022
David Klanecky is appointed as CEO and Luke Kissam is appointed as chairman
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March 2022
The same month, the companies acquire end-of-life battery management company Battery Solutions
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June 2022
The three companies launch Cirba Solutions
Thennis will steer Cirba’s expansion of its processing footprint, including technology development, according to the news release. He previously led manufacturing for anode copper foil and metal recovery at competitor Redwood Materials and has over 30 years of experience in the chemical industry, focused on lithium processing.
The former Redwood Materials executive joins Cirba as it works to expand its footprint in North America, which began with six processing sites. Since then, it’s been growing thanks to multiple Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grants helping fund its expansion efforts.
The company said it would spend $200 million to expand recycling capacity of lithium-ion batteries at its Lancaster, Ohio facility in October. Later that month, Cirba received $75 million under the first round of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to support its work on the facility.
An additional $7 million was awarded to Cirba in November to support scaling the Ohio operations, as well as advancing lithium-ion processing and recycling technologies in November.
“To be a part of an organization that is rapidly expanding its operational footprint is exciting,” Thennis said in a statement. “I am excited about what we are currently accomplishing in the marketplace and looking forward to what we will be bringing to the lithium-ion battery supply chain in the near term.”
Cirba recently extended its agreement with General Motors to recycle its lithium-ion battery and cell scrap at select facilities through 2024. GM and its competitors are increasingly partnering with battery recyclers to research and secure reclaimed battery materials as EV demand starts to exceed raw material supply.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Luke Kissam’s last name.
