MetCycle
Project Overview
About
Growing demand for lithium-ion batteries is increasing pressure to mine critical metals, and existing recycling methods often require extreme heat, strong acids and complex processing. MetCycle uses a reusable, mildly acidic solution to dissolve battery waste at room temperature in under 15 minutes, recovering metals as high-purity salts for new manufacturing. Unlike conventional techniques, it reduces energy consumption and hazardous waste. With laboratory recovery rates approaching 99%, the process could lower recycling costs and emissions, strengthen local supplies of critical metals and support closed-loop battery manufacturing.
Team
Esther Gray
I am a final-year PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge funded by the Faraday Institution, focusing on sustainable materials for energy storage. I am now building a start-up to commercialise a patented, zero-waste process that rapidly recovers critical metals from spent lithium-ion batteries at room temperature. The aim is to help enable a circular battery economy and reduce reliance on energy-intensive mining and recycling.
Javier Rubio Garcia
I am an innovative materials scientist and clean technology entrepreneur bridging the gap between academic research and industrial execution. As a former researcher at the University of Cambridge and clean-tech spin-out founder, my expertise centers on advanced electrochemical reactors. For Metcycle, I focus significantly on developing scalable, high-efficiency battery recycling technologies, where I co-invented the core intellectual property (IP) behind the project to optimize material recovery and drive sustainable circular economies for critical energy materials.