The company behind a planned battery recycling plant in Western Kentucky is receiving another $125 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a part of a broader federal effort to boost battery production and recycling for electric vehicles (EVs) and the electric grid.
Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements is receiving the federal award for a new battery recycling process at planned facilities in Hopkinsville in partnership with the Mexican company Orbia. The companies plan to extract graphite from the recycled batteries, have it further processed and enhanced at a separate Louisiana facility owned by Orbia and then sell the new battery-grade graphite. The DOE is describing the effort as a “first-of-its-kind recycled graphite production” process.
White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi in a statement Friday about the funding — which awarded more than $3 billion to 25 battery-related projects across the country — said the funding is “helping support the technologies that we need in the market today, the components that we will need in the near future, and the innovative technologies we need to advance our vision for a circular domestic battery supply chain that positions the United States to continue leading the global effort on clean energy.”…