Ascend Elements alters Kentucky plans, will return $164M grant to DOE

Due to “changing market conditions,” Westborough, Massachusetts-based battery recycler Ascend Elements has come to a mutual agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to cancel a $164 million grant intended to fund cathode active material (CAM) manufacturing infrastructure at Ascend’s Apex 1 facility project in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

The company says a separate DOE grant of $316 million for construction of cathode precursor (pCAM) infrastructure remains active.

Ascend says that changing market conditions have caused demand for domestic pCAM to exceed demand for CAM, and it now plans to produce only pCAM and lithium carbonate at its Kentucky facility.

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“We are grateful to the U.S. DOE for selecting Ascend Elements to receive this funding, but current market conditions do not support advancement of the CAM project at Apex 1,” says Roger Lin, the company’s vice president of government affairs. “We are 100 percent committed to completing construction of the Apex 1 campus in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, but the facility will only produce pCAM and lithium carbonate, a critical mineral. We’re just not seeing significant market demand for CAM right now, but we have buyers lined up to purchase sustainable, domestically produced pCAM and lithium carbonate.”

Ascend originally was selected for a total of $480 million in funding from two DOE grants in October 2022 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“By voluntarily returning the CAM grant, we are freeing up $164 million of federal funding for the current administration to reallocate as it deems most appropriate,” Lin says.

The company says it is prioritizing pCAM manufacturing at Apex 1 to help fill the 400-kiloton annual shortfall of the material that analysts expect in North America by 2030. Ascend notes that most of the world’s pCAM currently is made in China and claims the Apex 1 facility will be North America’s first commercial-scale manufacturer of pCAM when operational in the third quarter of 2026.

Lin says Apex 1 will be an important part of the U.S.’ domestic critical materials infrastructure.

“This project squarely aligns with the administration’s stated goal of increasing domestic production of critical materials," he says. "We are committed to creating good jobs in Kentucky, providing a domestic supply of lithium-ion battery materials and enhancing U.S. energy independence.”

Ascend began construction of the $1 billion Apex 1 campus in late 2022. When it announced the project, the company said that upon completion, it would be able to produce pCAM and other engineered battery materials for an estimated 750,000 electric vehicles (EVs) per year.