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Partnership aims to improve recycling solutions for EVSE supply chain waste
XCharge North America (XCharge NA), a provider of DC fast charging and battery-integrated electric vehicle (EV) solutions, announced its partnership with Grensol Group (Grensol). The collaboration aims to advance sustainable, electrified travel by addressing the pressing challenge of reducing the end-of-life waste associated with Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE)—particularly, EV charging cables and modules.
Effective immediately, XCharge NA will provide broken or worn-down EVSE materials to Grensol, and its research partner Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), for the development of an industrial recycling solution for such equipment. Grensol will then use its advanced metals recovery and photolysis technologies, amongst other technologies also being studied, to process the waste and produce useful raw materials for a circular economy, including critical metals for new EVSEs. Grensol's research at WPI is being led by Prof. Brajendra Mishra and Dr. Akanksha Gupta and is being performed under a collaborative agreement between WPI and the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory.
"EVSEs have a particularly short useful life due to constant wear and tear, so the need for a recyclable material solution is the driving force behind this partnership," said Rajiv Singhal of Grensol. "Partnering with XCharge NA will provide us and WPI with more materials and information for our development of breakthrough low-cost circular materials solutions for the future that keep resources onshore and materials in use for longer, while avoiding carbon emissions."
XCharge NA and Grensol discovered their shared interest in promoting sustainable solutions in the automotive industry while both being part of the Harvard Innovation Labs.
"This recycling-focused partnership will allow us to achieve an improved product lifecycle by promoting sustainable solutions," said Aatish Patel, Co-Founder and President of XCharge North America, "We'll work with Grensol to determine the best mechanical, chemical, and thermal recycling methods to create a continuous lifecycle for our charging materials and reducing our carbon footprint."
This partnership aims to build on existing techniques, such as wire cutting, alkaline leaching, and steam cracking by integrating full unit recycling, a system for waste-reduction management of EV chargers. For now, the first components including charging cables and modules have been shipped from XCharge NA to Grensol and WPI for processing.