American Battery Technology Company recently received a competitively bid $2-million contract award from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC), in collaboration with the US Department of Energy (DOE), for the commercial demonstration of its integrated lithium-ion battery recycling system and production of battery cathode grade metal products; the synthesis of high-energy-density active cathode material from these recycled battery metals by cathode producer and lithium-ion battery recycler BASF; and then the fabrication of large format automotive battery cells from these recycled materials and the testing of these cells against otherwise identical cells made from virgin-sourced metals by cell technology developer C4V.

The contract award, which includes a 75% cost-share, funds a 30-month project that began in October 2021. The program’s focus is to demonstrate that battery-grade metals can be manufactured from recycled materials at lower cost, lower environmental impact, and with higher domestic US sourced content than conventional virgin sourced metals.

Commercially prevalent processes will then be used to synthesize high-energy-density active cathode material from these recycled metals, and then large format automotive battery cells will be manufactured from these recycled materials and tested to validate that these cells achieve the same performance metrics as otherwise identical cells manufactured from conventional virgin sourced metals. This is American Battery Technology Company’s first contract with USABC.

While the domestic manufacturing capacities of electric vehicles and of lithium-ion battery cells have grown rapidly in the US in recent years, unfortunately the domestic production capacities of the battery metals that supply these operations have not kept pace. The establishment of a commercial-scale domestic US battery recycling industry can address these challenges and produce each of the battery metals required to supply new manufacturing operations. We are excited that through this demonstration ABTC will work together with such highly respected industry leaders to demonstrate a low-cost, low-environmental impact, integrated lithium-ion battery manufacturing supply chain to enable a true closed-loop domestic circular economy.

—project Principal Investigator and American Battery Technology Company CEO Ryan Melsert

USABC is a subsidiary of the United States Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR). Enabled by a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Energy (DOE), USABC’s mission is to develop electrochemical energy storage technologies that advance commercialization of next generation electrified vehicle applications. In support of its mission, USABC has developed mid- and long-term goals to guide its projects and measure its progress.

USCAR is the collaborative technology company of Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis. The goal of USCAR is to further strengthen the technology base of the domestic auto industry through cooperative research and development.

All USCAR Member companies have joined in becoming signatories of the Responsible Raw Materials Initiative (RRMI, now part of the Responsible Minerals Initiative, RMI) Declaration of Support.