Aqua Metals, a developer of an electrochemical refining process to recycle lead batteries, has appointed Steve Cotton as its chief commercial officer Cotton comes to Aqua Metals as the co-founder and former CEO of Data Power Monitoring Corporation and IntelliBatt (now Canara), where he successfully grew the business from a garage in 2001 to over $20 million in annual revenues before being acquired in June 2012 for $22.5 million by Columbia Capital.

Canara became the global leader for providing an innovative package of lead acid batteries, monitoring equipment and reliability and lifecycle management services for the data centre industry with over 300 data centres worldwide and a history of managing well over one million lead acid batteries.

Aqua Metals says it has developed a breakthrough technology called AquaRefining, which eliminates the inefficiencies, costs and toxic wastes associated with conventional smelter-based recycling of lead acid batteries. AquaRefining delivers a better product, at a higher yield, eliminates toxic waste, reduces permitting and is less expensive to build than smelting.

“The lead acid recycling industry has consistently been one of the most polluting industries in the world,” says Cotton. “The founders of Aqua Metals have leveraged their training, experience and expertise to re-invent the lead acid recycling process and move the $24 billion lead industry into the 21st century.”

Cotton is the holder of a 2009 patent that looks at methods for remote monitoring of the condition of batteries.