Battery recyclers among those selected for DOE funds

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the funding of more than $3 billion for 25 selected projects across 14 states to boost the domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials as part of the Biden administration’s Investing in America agenda.

According to the DOE, the selected projects, once fully contracted, are projected to support more than 8,000 construction jobs and more than 4,000 operating jobs. Administered by the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC), the projects will retrofit, expand and build new domestic facilities for battery-grade processed critical minerals, battery components, battery manufacturing and recycling.

Selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by the DOE to issue an award or provide funding, it says. Before issuing funding, the DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and the department will complete an environmental review. The department adds that it may cancel negotiations and rescind a selection for any reason during that time.

The DOE notes that under the Biden administration, the private sector has made a $120 billion investment in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, and this program is integral to the president’s clean energy industrial strategy to bolster a domestic supply chain than enhances U.S. energy security and economic competitiveness.

“We’re in the midst of a manufacturing revival in the United States as the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda continues to breathe new life into communities and local economies across the country,” says U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. “By positioning the U.S. as the forefront of advanced battery manufacturing, we are creating high-paying jobs and strengthening our global economic leadership and domestic energy security, all while supporting the clean energy transition.”

John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for international climate policy, says the administration is “using every available tool to onshore and friend-shore” the supply chain for EVs and batteries, working with allies and partners for the benefit of the country’s national security, economy and the planet.

“Today’s battery manufacturing grants from the DOE will boost America’s manufacturing base, create good-paying union jobs all over the country and help tackle the climate crisis,” Podesta adds.

Boosting the supply chain

Through grants and loans, the DOE says it is developing a portfolio of projects that will help deliver a durable and secure battery manufacturing supply chain for the country. Through the MESC, the DOE says the Investing in America agenda will generate $16 billion in total investment for battery manufacturing and recycling through the Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Program.

“The United States needs more domestically sourced materials to feed the dramatic growth in battery manufacturing,” says Leo Raudys, CEO of Atlanta-based battery stewardship organization Call2Recycle. “This announcement from the DOE is another great step in building a sustainable supply chain for batteries. At Call2Recycle, we’re excited to see so many of our partners receiving awards and look forward to meeting the challenge together.”

The DOE says the MESC uses market, economic and supply chain security-related technical analysis to collaborate with experts to identify gaps and growth opportunities across the nation’s energy supply chains, from raw materials processing and manufacturing. The analyses inform investment and program implementation.

The department adds the selected projects span strategic segments across the supply chain, building and expanding commercial-scale facilities to extract and recycle critical minerals including lithium, graphite and manganese, as well as manufacture components such as electrolyte salts, solid state electrolytes, polymers for separators, cathode and anode materials and more.

“The selected projects also cover traditional and next-generation lithium-ion chemistries, as well as nonlithium-ion technologies, to ensure the U.S. has a diverse portfolio of domestic battery technologies that can strengthen our overall energy security,” the DOE says.

Jobs boost for battery sector

Of the 25 projects selected for the second round of funding, the DOE says more than half have committed to, or already have, signed a project labor agreement commitment, and 10 have an agreement with labor or a neutrality pledge. The DOE adds that union partners represented across selected projects include North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU); boilermakers; the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART); carpenters; operating engineers; the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW); the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); and the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA).

The DOE says nearly 90 percent of companies selected are located in or adjacent to disadvantaged communities, advancing the administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, clean transportation and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities “that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.”

Recyclers in the funding mix

Of the 25 projects across 14 states selected to negotiate with the DOE for the more than $3 billion available, a number involve the recycling of battery materials.

Recyclers selected for the DOE funding round include:

• American Battery Technology Co. (ABTC) -- Based in Reno, Nevada, ABTC is negotiating for up to $150 million that will go toward the construction of a new commercial-scale lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling facility in South Carolina. The new facility, the company’s second, will be capable of processing approximately 100,000 tons of battery materials per year from the company’s battery manufacturer and automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. ABTC says the facility will produce battery-grade nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, aluminum and graphite along with lithium hydroxide for resale back to its partners. Partnerships and stakeholders include critical mineral offtake partner BASF; global engineering firm Siemens; the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research; the Argonne National Laboratory ReCell Center and its Sustainable Electric Transportation Network.
  
  
• Ascend Elements Inc. -- Westborough, Massachusetts-based Ascend, along with its subrecipient, Orbia, is in line to receive up to $125 million, which the company says it will put toward the construction of its recycled graphite production facilities—part of Ascend’s Apex 1 campus in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The facilities will convert graphite residue from an existing LIB recycling and cathode material production operation into battery-grade graphite with purity greater than 99.95 percent, and a lower carbon footprint than traditionally produced graphite. Ascend says graphite recovered and purified in Kentucky through its Hydro-to-Anode process will be further processed and upcycled in Orbia’s planned facility in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, and sold to domestic battery materials manufacturers for use in anode active material.
  
  
• Blue Whale Materials LLC (BWM) -- The Washington-based company, negotiating for up to $55.2 million, is building and operating advanced LIB recycling facilities in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, using a proprietary process to produce a high-yield, high-purity and dry mixed metal precursor it calls Blacksand, containing up to 98 percent of the cobalt and nickel metals in end-of-life LIBs and production scrap while reducing impurities such as aluminum, copper, fluorine and volatile electrolyte organics. When operational in the second quarter of 2025, BWM says its Oklahoma plant will employ at least 50 people to convert EV and consumer LIBs, as well as scrap from LIB manufacturers, into Blacksand. The objective of the company’s project is to incrementally expand processing capacity at the Oklahoma site from 14,000 tons to 50,000 tons per year.
  
  
• Cirba Solutions -- Charlotte, North Carolina-based Cirba Solutions could receive up to $200 million that it plans to use for the construction of its flagship LIB recycling facility in Columbia, South Carolina. The company says the facility will be capable of processing more than 60,000 tons of batteries annually.
  
  
• Clarios Circular Solutions LLC -- Glendale, Wisconsin-based Clarios could receive up to $150 million in DOE funds as it aims to recycle LIB production scrap into cathode active material (CAM) at its Florence Recycling Center in Florence, South Carolina, through a closed-loop supply chain. The company says its project will retrofit its existing facility to collocate scrap-to-CAM production with an annual output rate of 20,000 tons per year. Clarios says it is partnering with South Korea-based battery cell maker SK On and materials producers Cosmo Chemical and Cosmo AM&T to onshore technologies that are developed and proven at scale. Clarios says the project secures scrap materials from SK On production, converts it to battery-grade materials and returns CAM for cell manufacturing in a domestic SK On facility.
  
  
• Li Industries Inc. (LII) -- Pineville, North Carolina-based LII has been selected for up to $55.2 million and has proposed the retooling of a former manufacturing facility in Kettering, Ohio, to establish a 10,000-tons-per-year lithium iron phosphate (LFP) CAM direct recycling and production plant. The company says automaker General Motors is supporting it on the development of technology to enable the direct recycling process, and LII is partnering with others to build and operate the facility.
  
  
• Revex Technologies Inc. -- Houghton, Michigan-based Revex is eligible for up to $145 million for its Rev Nickel Project—a partnership with Eagle Mine, the only operating primary nickel mine in the U.S. and a U.S. subsidiary of Lundin Mining of Canada—to turn metal-bearing scrap streams, mine tailings and spent batteries into critical materials. In addition to project funding, the $398 million project is supported by up to $100 million in funding from the state of Michigan, contingent on federal funding. Revex says the project will have its first intermediate nickel product within 20 months of completed funding and will yield domestic nickel production for at least 462,000 EV batteries per year. Revex says the strategy for Rev Nickel is to construct and operate three related facilities in Marquette County, Michigan that will process mine scrap containing residual nickel to produce paste backfill and nickel iron sulfide; produce approximately 21,250 tons per year of green nickel concentrate from the paste facility output; and produce 16,000 tons per year of black mass containing cobalt, nickel and lithium from used batteries.

“The DOE’s backing underscores the importance of building a sustainable and resilient supply chain for critical minerals right here in the U.S.,” BWM CEO Robert Kang says in a news release highlighting his company’s selection. “This expansion not only supports our mission, but also fuels economic growth in Bartlesville, a historic energy community.”

Companies chosen for DOE funding also include those working in raw materials, separation and processing, component manufacturing and battery manufacturing.