New Delhi: Critical minerals recycler Attero has begun operating a new research and development (R&D) centre in Greater Noida, the company said on Tuesday. The centre will develop processes, automation designs and technology upgrades for Attero's recovery, recycling, refining and mid-stream processing operations in India and abroad.
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Nitin Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Attero, said the centre was built for harder recycling feedstock. "The operationalisation of this Centre of Excellence marks an important step in strengthening our ability to develop technologies for increasingly complex secondary resources," he said.
The centre's current and planned programmes focus on recovering materials from end-of-life batteries, electronic components and other complex secondary resources. These include rare earth elements and other high-value materials. The centre will also develop technologies to extract critical materials from recycled feedstock and mid-stream inputs, and to turn the recovered materials into higher-value applications.
Much of the equipment work targets battery recycling. The programme covers robotics-based battery cutting and new battery discharging systems. It also includes energy-efficient roasting equipment, advanced filtration and drying systems, and automated material conveying. The centre will develop ventilation and exhaust systems as well, which the company says will be safer and environmentally compliant.
The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) under the Ministry of Science and Technology has recognised the facility as an in-house industrial R&D centre. The recognition is valid until March 2029. It places the centre within the government's framework for recognised industrial R&D units. Under that framework, Attero can seek customs duty exemption on qualifying research equipment, instruments, spares and consumables. Any exemption remains subject to government notifications, eligibility conditions and the prescribed approval process.
Gupta linked the recognition to the company's push for home-grown technology. "The DSIR recognition further strengthens this in-house R&D framework and supports our focus on developing indigenous technologies for critical mineral recovery, advanced recycling and refining," he said.
The new centre builds on Attero's existing work in mechanical and hydrometallurgical processing. "Attero has built a proprietary technology base supported by more than 50 granted patents and over 200 patent filings globally," Gupta said. "The Centre will further deepen our ability to take ideas from the drawing board to industrial application, while building the technology capabilities needed for the next phase of growth in critical mineral recovery."
Technologies developed at Greater Noida are meant to be deployed later across the company's recycling, refining and mid-stream plants. These include its Roorkee facility in Uttarakhand. According to Attero, the Roorkee plant achieves recovery efficiencies above 98 percent and purity levels above 99.9 percent across battery materials.
Attero also runs facilities in Pune, Bengaluru and Faridabad, and a copper recycling plant at Reengus in Rajasthan. The company says it recovers more than 20 critical minerals, including rare earth elements, cobalt, nickel, lithium, copper, graphite, silver, gold and manganese. Rohan Gupta and Nitin Gupta founded the company in 2008. It is present in India, South Korea, Poland, Australia, Singapore and the United States.
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The company has received the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Industrial Innovation Award 2025. It also won the Circular Economy Initiative Award at India Solar Week 2026.
