ABTC awarded proof of concept grant

Reno, Nevada-based American Battery Technology Co. (ABTC) says it has received a competitively bid $2 million contract award from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for the commercial demonstration of its integrated lithium-ion battery recycling system.

The system results in the 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 Binghamton, New York-based cell technology developer C4V, according to ABTC.

The contract award, designed to cover a 75 percent share of costs, 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 United States-sourced content than conventional virgin sourced metals,” states the company.

A combination of processes will be used to demonstrate the battery cells made achieve the same performance metrics as otherwise identical cells manufactured from conventional virgin sourced metals says ABTC of its first contract with USABC.

“While the domestic manufacturing capacities of electric vehicles and of lithium-ion battery cells have grown rapidly in the U.S. in recent years, unfortunately the domestic production capacities of the battery metals that supply these operations have not kept pace,” remarks project Principal Investigator and American Battery Technology Co. CEO Ryan Melsert.

“The establishment of a commercial scale domestic U.S. battery recycling industry can address these challenges and produce each of the battery metals required to supply new manufacturing operations,” he continues. “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.”