BETHLEHEM, PA / ACCESSWIRE / December 10, 2021 / While the headlines regarding the ongoing vehicle production shortage have been focusing on a lack of microchips, there are further supply chain issues currently underway. Among the most serious is the lack of a domestic supply of essential commodities for manufacturing vehicle components, and batteries in particular.

The demand for these commodities has skyrocketed, and the USA largely relies on foreign supply chains for both the finished batteries and the metals themselves. With significant concern over supplies of vital commodities like lithium, nickel, copper, aluminum, and cobalt, there are many ongoing efforts to regain control over the supply chain.

Consortium Seeks to Reinvigorate Domestic Battery Industry

One of the most prominent organizations in this effort is the United States Advanced Battery Consortium. This consortium engages stakeholders from across the industry, including the Big Three auto manufacturers, the Department of Energy, and many organizations involved in research and development.

Run by the United States Council for Automotive Research, USABC focuses on developing and supporting practical solutions for every stage of the EV battery lifecycle, from production to recycling. As demand continues to grow, the need for sustainable handling of commodities is becoming ever more apparent, and new technologies are required.

Recycling is among the top focal points for USABC, one that is expected to have a serious impact on the industry overall in the coming decades. While electric vehicles have become much more common over the last decade, we have yet to see a full generation of these vehicles reach the end of their useful life.

Moving towards 2030, the lithium-ion batteries that power these vehicles will reach that point and will have nowhere to go but the landfill if more effective recycling methods are not developed. Recovering the commodities that go into these batteries is going to be a pivotal development in the sustainability of the industry.

New Program Set to Test Advanced Battery Recycling Methods

Among the USABC's newest developments is the announcement of a new program in partnership with Nevada-based American Battery Technology Company, a company that's implementing proprietary technology to extract commodities during EV and other large-format battery recycling.

The $2 million contract will fund a 30-month project that will demonstrate ABTC's lithium-ion battery recycling process at scale. The process is entirely domestic, bringing another essential step in the life cycle of these commodities back to US soil.

The program is titled "Strategic Collaboration for the Development of a Self-Sustaining Model for the Recycling of Large-Format Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) Batteries" and includes a 75 percent cost-share by the ABTC-led project team towards the ultimate goal of a sustainable domestic battery supply chain.

Jonathan Barkman, an early stage investor and past company advisor to ABTC, explained that the company's overall focus is in providing a sustainable foundation to move into the future of the industry, one that completely reinvents how we handle recycling.

The unique process developed by ABTC employs extraction methods that can be applied to EV batteries, industrial storage batteries, and even consumer batteries. The solution doesn't focus only on lithium recovery, an essential factor in any recycling operation, but also the extraction of the other metals like copper, aluminum, and nickel that go into battery production as well.

ABTC implements a comprehensive process for battery recycling, providing battery-grade materials that are ready to be sold to manufacturers without intermediate processing. The methods that ABTC has developed will be able to provide an effective solution for battery recycling, improving on traditional approaches that have proven to be costly, hazardous, and inefficient.

CONTACT:

Company Name: American Battery Technology Company
Contact Person: Jonathan Barkman
Phone Number: 610-390-2199
Website Link: https://www.americanbatterytechnology.com/

SOURCE: American Battery Technology Company