White House reps visit ABTC facility

Shining a spotlight on a provider of the metals needed for the lithium batteries powering America's clean energy technologies, American Battery Technology Company announced a visit from representatives from the White House.

"We are proud to be part of the Nevada community that is at the forefront of working to build the domestic lithium-ion battery supply chain," said American Battery Technology Company CEO Ryan Melsert.

Visiting ABTC's facility in Northern Nevada, National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar were taken on a tour of the battery recycler where Melsert highlighted the company's capabilities and progress.

"We have been fortunate enough to have been awarded four competitive grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance both our lithium-ion battery recycling and our primary lithium hydroxide manufacturing facilities, and we enjoyed the opportunity to detail the progress of these current and prospective future projects with Director Panchanathan and Director Prabhakar, and to partner with the University of Nevada, Reno, to advance the domestic lithium-ion battery circular economy," he said.

Although there are a large number of battery cell and electric vehicle manufacturing facilities currently under construction in the U.S., a large void in the domestic supply chain upstream is creating a significant shortage of domestic and environmentally responsible battery materials required to feed them.

Until construction can catch up, ABTC has been working to address this shortfall by commercializing its already existing technologies for both the recycling of lithium-ion batteries and the manufacturing of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from its domestic Nevada-based claystone lithium resource.

Founded in 2011, ABTC began with a few mining claims out of Nevada. Spun out from a former Tesla employee seeking a means of providing lithium-ion batteries for the famed EVs, it turned out that this foresight proved astute.

Recognizing the severity of delivering domestic supplies of the lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese needed not just in EVs but in solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage systems, ABTC broadened its business to more than just primary battery metals manufacturing but also into lithium-ion recycling.

With ample funding due to its promising recycling technology, a ready-made facility for the company to begin operations, a pre-commercial building under construction, and an agreement for pre-purchase of its future product, ABTC is proving its foresight was not just a one-off and is preparing to provide America with ABTC battery materials.

Proof is in the funding

Proud member of the team supporting the University of Nevada, Reno's National Science Foundation Regional Engines Development project for "advancing the circular economy for lithium battery," ABTC has strategically developed public-private partnerships to accelerate the manufacturing of domestic battery metals from secondary and primary sources to strengthen the U.S. battery metals supply chain.

In addition to the recent NSF-funded project, ABTC has been awarded several competitive awards from private corporations as well as the federal government.

BASF Circularity Challenge: ABTC was named winner of a lithium-ion battery recycling global competition hosted by BASF, one of the largest active cathode producers in the U.S., and in partnership with Greentown Labs and Black & Decker. This challenge was intended to help identify the world's most promising lithium-ion battery technologies.

U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium: ABTC received a $2 million contract award from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, for the commercial demonstration of its integrated lithium-ion battery recycling system and production of battery cathode grade metal products, the synthesis of high energy density active cathode material from 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 metals by cell technology developer C4V.

U.S. DOE - Electric Drive Vehicle Battery Recycling and Second Life Applications Grant: As one of five companies selected for competitive funding under the battery recycling portion of the "Electric Drive Vehicle Battery Recycling and Second Life Applications" funding opportunity from DOE, ABTC, and its partners, were awarded close to $10 million to validate, test, and deploy three disruptive advanced separation and processing technologies in its lithium-ion battery recycling plant to further enhance the economic competitiveness, reduce environmental impact, and re-integrate an even greater percentage of the constituent components to the domestic battery manufacturing market.

U.S. DOE - Critical Materials Next Generation Technologies and Field Demonstration Grant: In collaboration with DuPont and University of Nevada, Reno, ABTC is currently constructing and commissioning a multi-ton-per-day field demonstration system through the support of a grant from DOE's Advanced Manufacturing Office Critical Materials Innovation program. Following the completion of construction, the site will utilize ABTC's in-house developed extraction process, including selective leaching and targeted purification of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate from its unique domestic claystone resource. This first-of-kind ABTC technology for selective extraction of lithium from claystone resources has been demonstrated at bench scale to significantly reduce chemical reagent consumption and environmental impact.

U.S. DOE – Battery Materials Processing and Manufacturing Grant: As a result of the early successes of its Nevada lithium claystone selective leaching field demonstration project, in October 2022, ABTC was selected for an additional competitively awarded DOE grant for a $115 million project partially funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support the construction of a commercial-scale battery grade lithium hydroxide manufacturing facility.