U.S. Department of Energy announces $3 billion for battery manufacturing, recycling

The DoE has announced more than $3 billion of funding to back battery materials extraction and processing, battery production, and recycling in a bid to boost the domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials nationwide.

With the first round of the Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling program having allocated $1.82 billion to 14 projects, the latest slew of financial support will benefit 25 projects in 14 states, subject to environmental assessments and negotiations with the bid applicants selected.

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda aims to generate $16 billion in total investment for battery manufacturing and recycling through the program “to onshore a robust and reliable energy supply chain” and “create good-paying jobs”.

The projects backed in the second round of the program include Enersys Advanced Systems, which could receive more than $199 million for a 5 GWh-production-capacity battery cell manufacturing site in Piedmont, South Carolina, with an expected start date in 2028.

Form Energy, Inc. is in line for $150 million for a 20 GWh manufacturing line for its 100-hour iron-air batteries, at a site in Weirton, West Virginia.

Further upstream, Albemarle US Inc could receive $67 million to retrofit a manufacturing site in North Carolina to produce 50 metric tons (MT) per year of lithium metal anode materials.

Separators

Braskem America Inc. is in line for $50 million to retrofit and expand its site in La Porte, Texas, to produce ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene for battery separators.

The same figure has been allocated to Cabot Corporation for its Van Buren Township site in Wayne County, Michigan, which will produce around 1,000 tons per year of battery-grade nanotubes and up to 12,000 tons of conductive additive dispersions, which connect active materials in battery electrodes.

The Dow Chemical Company has requested $100 million to demonstrate the manufacture of battery-grade carbonate solvents – used in lithium-ion battery electrolytes – from waste CO₂ at a site on the Gulf Coast.

Ski US, Inc, wants $150 million for a synthetic graphite production site in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

On the recycling front, $150 million could go to American Battery Technology Company to build a 100,000 ton-per-year lithium-ion battery recycling plant in South Carolina.

Ascend Elements Inc applied for $125 million for a new battery-grade graphite recycling facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Blue Whale Materials LLC wants $55 million to expand its recycling site at Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to produce 50,000 MT/yr of its “blacksand” precursor material, up from its current 14,000-ton annual production capacity. Blacksand is a precursor for the recovery of cobalt, nickel, and lithium.

Cathode material

Li Industries, Inc. has applied for $55.2 million to retool a manufacturing site in Kettering, Ohio, to recycle 10,000 tons per year of cathode active material for lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) batteries.

Mitra Future Technologies Inc will instead manufacture the same material for LFP devices, at a site in Muskegon, Michigan, with the help of $100 million of DoE funding.

Other successful applicants include battery raw material extraction projects and sites dedicated to supplying devices, components, and raw materials for transport purposes, with an emphasis on the US burgeoning electric vehicle industry.

Announcing the latest awards, the DoE said the 25 successful projects, which could benefit from a combination of loans and non-repayable grants – in unspecified proportions – would support more than 8,000 construction jobs and more than 4,000 operating roles.

“Almost 90%” of the projects – suggesting 22 of them – are in or near disadvantaged areas. US President Joe Biden wants 40% of the benefits of the US energy transition to reach such areas.