A step beyond recovery
For the past several months, Renovar's work has centered on one core capability: recovering battery-grade pCAM — precursor cathode active material — directly from spent lithium-ion cells. That process is now extending a step further. Renovar is producing LFP cathode active material (CAM) in-house: not just the precursor, but the finished, battery-ready material that goes directly into a new cathode.
It's a meaningful distinction. Recovering pCAM proves a recycling process works. Producing finished CAM proves it can feed a battery supply chain.
Why LFP, and why now
Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) has gone from a niche, budget chemistry to one of the fastest-growing cathode types in the world, used across EVs and battery energy storage systems. It needs no cobalt and no nickel — which removes two of the most geopolitically concentrated critical minerals from the equation. But that doesn't mean LFP is free of supply chain risk: India currently imports nearly all of its LFP CAM, predominantly from Chinese producers.
That's the gap this milestone starts to close.
What this means for India's battery supply chain
Cell manufacturing anywhere in the world depends on a steady, qualified supply of cathode active material. Today, that material is almost entirely imported into India. Domestic CAM production — especially when it's built on recovered, not virgin-mined, material — is one of the clearest paths toward reducing that dependency:
Finished CAM, not just pCAM — the material that goes directly into a new cathode, not an intermediate that still needs further processing elsewhere. Built on direct recycling — recovered lithium and iron phosphate from end-of-life batteries, not freshly mined material. A step toward domestic, cell-grade supply — one more link in a battery value chain that doesn't yet exist end-to-end in India. Where we go from here
This is one milestone in a longer build. We'll continue sharing progress as it happens — validation results, capacity, and what comes next — rather than getting ahead of where the technology actually stands.
Renovar Eco Solutions is a direct battery recycling company based in Chennai, India.