Nth Cycle awarded $2.15M US Department of Energy grant

The grant is part of the Battery Materials and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Funding Opportunity program of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

A site visit at Nth Cycle from Congressman Seth Moulton
From left: Chris Thoren, vice president of engineering of Nth Cycle; Chad Vecitis, CTO and co-founder, Nth Cycle; Megan O'Connor, CEO and co-founder of Nth Cycle; U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton
Image courtesy of Nth Cycle

Nth Cycle, a metals processing and recycling technology company based in Boston, has been awarded a $2.15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Battery Materials and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Funding Opportunity (BMBMR) program of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The grant is in conjunction with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Cirba Solutions, a leading battery management and materials processor.  

Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology transforms the outputs of metal scrap, electronics recycling, untapped mining resources and waste from existing mines into high-purity critical minerals ready to be used in the production of lithium-ion batteries. The company says electro-extraction is a cleaner, more efficient and lower-cost alternative to the conventional and prohibitively dirty pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy processes currently used by battery recyclers and miners.  

Nth Cycle's refining technology is a component of the recycling value chain, converting disassembled waste materials into high-grade feedstocks for new battery manufacturing in the form of nickel mixed hydroxide product.  

“Recent legislation mandates the deployment of a compliant supply of critical minerals like nickel and cobalt that are mined, refined or recycled locally,” Nth Cycle co-founder and CEO Megan O'Connor says. “Unfortunately, there's not enough compliant supply today to meet America's increasing demand for electrification. We expect Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology to be a pivotal solution in closing the resulting gap between supply and demand for domestic critical materials through cost-effective, efficient and environmentally-conscious refining at home. The DOE's BMBMR program will help us and others accelerate those efforts." 

Nth Cycle is hiring and has open positions in Massachusetts across engineering, business and the sciences.