Tag: lithium-ion

RIT’s Battery Prototyping Center expands with help from Build Back Better funding

 

Center director, Matt Ganter, demonstrates the development process to several of the seminar attendees.
Center director Matt Ganter, demonstrates the development process to several of the seminar attendees. (Photo by Scott Hamilton/RIT Marketing and Communications)

Rochester Institute of Technology is expanding its Battery Prototyping Center, with the goal of helping more companies bring their products to market and train more workers in the growing battery manufacturing sector.

The university is one of the collaborative partners selected for funding through the American Rescue Plan’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge.

The group of 13 partners — led by SUNY Binghamton — secured more than $63.7 million to establish upstate New York as a national hub for battery research and manufacturing. The state has committed another $50 million toward the project.

RIT is slated to receive roughly $2.3 million for the Battery Prototyping Center expansion, which calls for doubling the size of the 2,000-square-foot facility.

Ryne Raffaelle, RIT vice president for research and associate provost, said the center is a critical resource in the growing sector in the state.

“We’ve tapped into a big need here,” he said.

The RIT Battery Prototyping Center is a key resource to support early-stage development of next generation lithium-ion cells and materials, which are essential for industries ranging from automotive and medical devices to defense and national security.

The center provides battery technology training to companies of all sizes and serves as a resource for workforce development and new product testing for companies.

The research staff of the Battery Prototyping Center working with students and clients on battery testing equipment. The Center is also key to preparing students for the growing, multi-billion
dollar industry in lithium ion battery technologies. Here, chemical engineering student Eleni Ioannidis adjusts a cylindrical cell winder at the Center. (Photo by Scott Hamilton/RIT Marketing and Communications)

The center’s team has worked with more than 100 customers from academia, government, a variety of industry manufacturers and technology hubs since its inception in 2015, said Matthew Ganter, director of the center and assistant research professor of chemical engineering.

He said the expansion is needed, adding that companies have the facility booked through 2023.

In addition to increasing the size and capabilities of the lab, the center will also have more space for hands-on training as a result of the project, Ganter said.

The battery center has been offering two-day training sessions since 2018 – which quickly reach capacity – and will now be able to add more of those sessions. There will also be new opportunities for a certificate program in battery manufacturing and entry level technician training.

Future efforts could include a master’s degree program in chemical engineering, with a focus on battery design.

Ganter said there is a demand for workers from companies in the lithium-ion battery space.

These new and enhanced offerings at the center can help meet that need, he added.

Like most manufacturers, those in the sector experienced the supply chain challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That, as well as the increased demand for such batteries – especially in the electric vehicle market – prompted federal and state leaders to provide resources domestically to reduce our dependency on companies overseas.

The Rochester/Finger Lakes region and the Southern Tier are well positioned to be leaders in the sector, Ganter said.

He noted there are already battery technology companies in the Rochester area, including Li-Cycle, a Canadian-based lithium-ion battery recycler with operations at the Eastman Business Park.

Job #6012 for Melissa Taylor, Community and Government Relations. Press conference / ribbon cutting for the opening of the new Batter Prototyping Center and lab. Building 73 Institute Hall. March 6, 2015.
Signage from the Center includes names of the sponsors. (Photo by Scott Hamilton/RIT Marketing and Communications)

The company’s Rochester Hub is expected to be the first commercial hydrometallurgical battery resource recovery facility as well as the first new significant source of battery-grade lithium carbonate production in North America.

The facility is expected to process battery material that is equivalent to some 225,000 electric vehicles each year.

Company leaders expect to create roughly 220 jobs at the Rochester Hub which it expects to begin commissioning in 2023.

Li-Cycle also has an existing Spoke facility in Rochester that supports more than 35 jobs.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) visited Li-Cycle earlier this week where he announced his push to help the company tap into some of the new grants and loans provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

With companies like Li-Cycle growing, Schumer said the Finger Lakes is set to be a national hub for the rapidly growing American battery industry, bringing good-paying jobs back from overseas and setting the region to be a leader in an industry that will define the next century.

Eastman Kodak Co. is another local company looking to capitalize on the battery industry.

Kodak leaders have committed to expanding its Advanced Materials & Chemicals group as the company looks to capitalize on its expertise in coating technology, developed over decades of film manufacturing, to pursue opportunities in the growing battery market.

Additionally, the BEST Test and Commercialization Center, also located at the Eastman Business Park, helps bring emerging technologies to the commercial market and offer companies essential product testing and qualification at a reasonable cost.

Such activity bodes well for the region, Ganter said.

“There’s so much activity in this space and companies are seeing that it makes sense to look at the Rochester region as a place to settle in, given the resources here,” he said.

Raffaelle agreed.

“A lot of companies in this sector are migrating to New York because it’s where the action is and where the workforce is,” he said.

[email protected] / (585) 653-4021

Li-Cycle reports loss in Q3

Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., the Toronto-based lithium-ion battery recycler that has a “spoke” facility at Eastman Business Park, on Thursday reported a third-quarter loss of $6.9 million, despite an 840 percent increase in sales.

For the quarter ended July 31, Li-Cycle reported revenues of $1.7 million, compared with $200,000 in the same quarter last year, driven primarily by an increase in the number of batteries and battery scrap processed at the Rochester spoke facility. Operating expenses also increased as a result of personnel costs and ramp-up of facilities including Rochester.

The net loss of $6.9 million for the quarter compared to a $1.8 million loss in the same quarter last year.

“I am incredibly proud of what the Li-Cycle team has accomplished so far in 2021, continuing our mission to solve the global battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life lithium-ion battery problem by creating a secondary supply of critical battery materials, while also ensuring a sustainable future for our planet,” said Li-Cycle President and CEO Ajay Kochhar. “Since announcing our business combination with Peridot Acquisition Corp. in February, we signed significant commercial agreements with Ultium Cells LLC — the joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution — and Univar Solutions Inc.; we began construction of our Arizona Spoke; and just yesterday, we announced plans to build an incremental fourth Spoke in Alabama.

“With the funds from our business combination transaction completed in August 2021, we believe that Li-Cycle is primed to capitalize on the significant growth opportunities created by the continuing mobility revolution,” he added.

Li-Cycle was founded in 2016 and uses a patented “spoke & hub” technology to recover and recycle lithium-ion batteries. The EBP facility produces an intermediate mixed battery material product known as “black mass” from all types of spent lithium-ion batteries. The facility, which was the second spoke for the company, has the capacity to process up to 5,000 tons of spent lithium-ion batteries per year.

In a statement, Li-Cycle officials noted that the demand for lithium-ion battery recycling has continued to exceed the company’s projections. In order to meet the growing demand, the company plans to increase and accelerate investment in the build-out of its recycling capacity, including through the development of the Alabama Spoke, increasing its processing capacity beyond that of previous plans and projections.

Li-Cycle officials said the company is confident in its ability to scale the business to at least 100,000 tons per year of spoke processing capacity and 220,000 to 240,000 tons per year of hub processing capacity by 2025.

Shares of company stock (NYSE: LICY) were trading down Friday midday at $7.85.

[email protected] / 585-653-4021
Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

NOHMs rebrands with new focus on safer Li-ion technology

NOHMs Technologies Inc. has relaunched as Sionic Energy.

Long known as a leading provider of advanced electrolyte products for next-generation lithium-ion batteries, NOHMs is transforming its business to deliver complete battery cell designs that incorporate its breakthrough technologies into a drop-in, rapidly commercialized, low-cost, high-performance, safer Li-ion technology.

Sionic’s silicon battery cell designs incorporate the company’s innovations that deliver up to 50 percent greater energy density, 30 percent lower cost and increased safety. They can be integrated into cylindrical, pouch or prismatic cell formats in existing cell production supply chains and infrastructure.

Sionic's silicon battery cell designs incorporate the company's innovations that delivery up to 50 percent greater energy density. (provided)
Sionic’s silicon battery cell designs incorporate the company’s innovations that delivery up to 50 percent greater energy density. (provided)

As part of the transformation, Ed Williams, NOHMs chairman, acting CEO and 15-year battery industry executive will assume the position of CEO and guide the company through its accelerated growth strategy into the automotive, consumer electronics and aviation battery markets.

Sionic is on track to have its battery design ready for production and commercialization in light aviation such as drones and consumer electronics sectors by late 2022, officials said.

“With the world depending on lithium-ion batteries to power our devices, our vehicles and our infrastructure, battery performance, cost and safety have become more critical metrics for success and progress than ever,” Williams said in a statement this week. “Through collaboration with the exceptional team at NOHMs, our launch of Sionic Energy unites their legacy electrolyte technologies with our recently acquired high-capacity silicon anode technology from the University of Colorado Boulder to create a truly market disruptive battery. We’re looking forward to addressing the market’s growing demand for drop-in, next-generation, lithium-ion battery technology.”

Production-scale prototype cells will be available in the fourth quarter of this year for customer evaluations and testing, officials said.

[email protected] / 585-653-4021
Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

Li-Cycle EBP facility up and running

Li-Cycle's Rochester "spoke" is operational. In this photo, a module is being unloaded at the Eastman Business Park facility. (photo provided)
Li-Cycle’s Rochester “spoke” is operational. In this photo, a module is being unloaded at the Eastman Business Park facility. (photo provided)

Canadian lithium-ion battery recycler Li-Cycle Corp. has completed its Rochester “spoke” facility, its largest capacity recycling facility in North America.

The Eastman Business Park facility will produce an intermediate mixed battery material product known as “black mass” from all types of spent lithium-ion batteries. The facility, the second “spoke” for the company, has the capacity to process up to 5,000 tons of spent lithium-ion batteries per year, which brings Li-Cycle’s total recycling capacity to 10,000 tons per year through its two North American spokes.

Ajay Kochhar
Ajay Kochhar

“This is a crucial step in scaling Li-Cycle’s technology and creating a strong foundation for the circular supply chain for lithium-ion batteries in a world where increased electrification is needed to combat climate change,” said Li-Cycle CEO Ajay Kochhtar in a statement. “Our goal is to better manage end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in order to meet the increasing demand for critical battery materials by creating a local source for these materials in North America.”

Li-Cycle was founded in 2016 in Toronto with the vision of solving the global end-of-life lithium-ion battery problem and creating a secondary supply to meet the demand for critical battery materials through innovative recycling technology. Historically, most lithium-ion battery recycling processes have treated the product as waste and a liability.

The company uses an innovative spoke and hub process wherein batteries are shipped to an initial spoke location, where the materials are mechanically processed. The material then is transported to a second hub location where the intermediate product from the spoke is put through a hydrometallurgical, or wet chemistry, process. The resulting components are then returned to their original, battery-grade chemical states for reintegration into the lithium-ion battery supply chain.

Both spokes will supply black mass to Li-Cycle’s future hub, which will be constructed at Eastman Business Park by 2022. The hub will process black mass in order to produce critical, battery-grade materials from recycled sources, as well as other recycled materials that can be returned to the economy.

Li-Cycle recently closed a Series C equity funding round to fund this development and to drive expansion into international markets.

[email protected] / 585-653-4021
Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer

Li-Cycle completes funding round for Rochester hub

Canadian battery recycling company Li-Cycle Corp. has closed a Series C equity funding round to fund the development of its Rochester commercial hub and to drive expansion into international markets.

Financial terms of the funding were not disclosed.

“Li-Cycle is at the forefront of perhaps the most important segment of the electric vehicle and battery supply chain,” CEO Ajay Kochhar said. “This is a market that requires significant development – specifically when it comes to handling the incoming tsunami of spent lithium-ion batteries. Without sustainable and economically viable lithium-ion battery recycling, we believe it’s likely that electric vehicle proliferation will be substantially hindered.”

Kochhar said the company’s newest investment partners have the vision to see that innovative and circular battery recycling is the key to providing a solution for the urgent global challenge and opportunity.

“The need for an environmentally sustainable recycling capability for lithium-ion batteries is critical,” said James McIntyre, senior managing director and COO of Moore Strategic Ventures LLC, which led the financing round. “Not only does Li-Cycle’s technology accomplish this, but it does so while enhancing the local supply of essential battery materials, most notably cobalt, lithium and nickel. Importantly, Li-Cycle’s recycling technology does not use a polluting smelting process.”

This round of funding will enable Li-Cycle to continue to scale the business and strengthen its position as the global leader in lithium-ion battery recycling, McIntyre said.

Li-Cycle was founded in 2016 in Toronto with the vision of solving the global end-of-life lithium-ion battery problem and creating a secondary supply to meet the demand for critical battery materials through innovative recycling technology. Historically, most lithium-ion battery recycling processes have treated the product as waste and a liability.

The company uses an innovative spoke and hub process wherein batteries are shipped to an initial spoke location, where the materials are mechanically processed, then the material is transported to a second hub location where the intermediate product from the spoke is put through a hydrometallurgical, or wet chemistry, process. The resulting components are then returned to their original, battery-grade chemical states for reintegration into the lithium-ion battery supply chain.

Li-Cycle’s spoke facility in Kingston, Ontario, is operational and the company is commissioning a second spoke facility in Rochester. The local facility is expected to be operational during the fourth quarter of 2020. The company also is developing a hub facility to be located in close proximity to its Rochester plant.

[email protected] / 585-653-4021
Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer