Blue Whale Materials says its full battery-processing line in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, has reached mechanical completion and entered commissioning. That September 2026 milestone comes after the company's own 2025 materials targeted the full cell-to-pack process or annual processing capacity above 20,000 tons for Q1 2026.123
The company now puts the line's stated annual battery-feedstock processing capacity at 20,000 metric tons, up from 14,000. Using those two figures, the nominal increase is about 42.9%.1
But mechanical completion is not the same thing as sustained output at that rate. Blue Whale's current release says commissioning will continue through the balance of 2026 as the facility ramps toward its expanded capacity.1
The Q1 target versus the current milestone
Blue Whale has described the Bartlesville expansion in several distinct stages:
| Company update | What Blue Whale said |
|---|---|
| Sept. 29, 2025 | The baseline black-mass plant was commissioning at up to 14,000 tonnes per year, while the full cell-to-pack recycling process was under construction and expected online in Q1 2026.2 |
| Nov. 10, 2025 | The DOE-supported expansion was expected to lift annual processing capacity above 20,000 tons by Q1 2026, with a longer-term target of up to 50,000 tons per year.3 |
| Sept. 16, 2026 | The full processing line had reached mechanical completion, commissioning had begun earlier in September, stated annual capacity was 20,000 metric tons, and commissioning was expected to continue through year-end.1 |
The supported comparison is therefore narrower than saying the project is a specific number of months late. Blue Whale's earlier materials gave a quarter-level target window, not a day-level deadline, and the current sources do not establish why the schedule changed.23
What they do establish is a change in implementation state: the full process that Blue Whale expected online in Q1 is now mechanically complete and commissioning, with the company still describing a ramp through the rest of 2026.12
A 20,000-ton rating is not a throughput report
The current line is designed to take lithium-ion battery cells, modules and complete packs through one integrated operation, according to Blue Whale.1 That is a broader processing scope than the baseline plant described in September 2025, which the company said would process up to 14,000 tonnes of battery manufacturing scrap annually after commissioning.2
The distinction matters when reading the capacity number. The Sept. 16 release establishes Blue Whale's stated annual processing capacity and current commissioning status; it does not provide independently verified utilization or show that the facility is already sustaining a 20,000-metric-ton annualized feedstock rate.1
There is also more planned expansion beyond this phase. Blue Whale said in November 2025 that the four-year project ultimately targets up to 50,000 tons per year.3 On a simple nominal-capacity basis, the current 20,000 figure is 40% of that longer-term target. The 50,000-ton figure remains a plan, not current operating capacity.13
The next material implementation milestone is therefore not another capacity announcement by itself, but completion of commissioning or evidence that the Bartlesville line has reached and can sustain its expanded operating rate.
Sources
Footnotes
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Blue Whale Materials Completes Full Processing Line in Bartlesville as Commissioning Advances — Blue Whale Materials via Business Wire, Sept. 16, 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260916900741/en/ Establishes the company's mechanical-completion claim, September commissioning start, integrated cells/modules/packs capability, stated 14,000-to-20,000 metric-ton annual capacity change, and commissioning through the balance of 2026. Company-reported operating/capacity claims are not independent throughput verification. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8
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BWM Commissions Baseline Plant in Bartlesville — Blue Whale Materials, Sept. 29, 2025. https://www.bluewhalematerials.com/bwm-commissions-baseline-plant-in-bartlesville Establishes the up-to-14,000-tonne baseline after commissioning and the company's then-current expectation that the full cell-to-pack process would be online in Q1 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
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BWM Marks Bartlesville Facility Expansion with Senator Lankford and Oklahoma State Leaders — Blue Whale Materials, Nov. 10, 2025. https://www.bluewhalematerials.com/bwm-marks-bartlesville-facility-expansion-with-senator-lankford-and-oklahoma-state-leaders Establishes the company's then-current target of more than 20,000 tons/year by Q1 2026 and its longer-term plan for up to 50,000 tons/year. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5