American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) — an integrated critical battery materials company that is commercializing its technologies for primary battery minerals manufacturing and secondary minerals lithium-ion battery recycling — was selected for an approximately $20 million award through the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credits program (48C).
An employee from the ABTC inspects a battery at the company’s lithium-ion battery recycling facility located in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center in Storey County, Nevada.
This award was granted by the US Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service following a highly competitive technical and economic review process performed by the US Department of Energy (DOE), which evaluated the feasibility of applicant facilities to advance America’s buildout of globally competitive critical material recycling, processing, and refining infrastructure.
ABTC is commercializing its internally developed recycling process that utilizes an upfront strategic de-manufacturing process followed by a targeted chemical extraction train to recover battery materials with high yields, low cost, and a low environmental footprint. These ABTC recycling technologies have won several competitive corporate awards and government grants and are fundamentally different than conventional methods of battery recycling, which generally utilize either high-temperature smelting operations or non-strategic shredding systems.
This $20 million award can be used for the reimbursement of capital expenditures spent to date and for equipment and infrastructure for additional value-add operations at ABTC’s battery recycling facility in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) in Storey County, Nevada.
Combined with ABTC’s previously awarded US DOE grants totaling over $70 million, these funds support investment in the company’s battery recycling and primary battery metals commercialization efforts to buildout a domestically-sourced battery metals circular supply chain. These efforts simultaneously aim to foster a sustainable and equitable workforce through partnerships that can propel the new energy transition.
ABTC is working to foster improved access to jobs for members of the community, including under-represented individuals and those facing barriers to employment, by leveraging US DOE investments and through partnerships with workforce development and government agencies.
“We are proud to have been selected for this highly competitive award, and humbled to have been chosen within a program where less than one-tenth of the requested funds were ultimately selected for award,” said ABTC CEO, Ryan Melsert. “These funds will facilitate the acceleration of the buildout and start of operations of our commercial scale hydrometallurgy-based recycled battery minerals processing and refinement systems to increase the overall capacity for domestic critical mineral manufacturing.”
In collaboration with and support from strategic partners, such as the University of Nevada, Reno, the Nevada Battery Coalition, the Nevada’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the Nevada Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation, and the Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation, ABTC is actively engaged and involved in positioning Nevada as a leading fulcrum of the battery metals supply chain in North America.
Filed Under: Batteries, Technology News