WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) is providing $2 million to fund research projects to boost recycling and reuse of lithium-ion batteries.

Through this investment, AMMTO will encourage the formation of cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) between the federal network of national laboratories and private industry partners. These CRADA projects will require a 50 percent cost share between the DOE and private partners, although projects without a CRADA will also be considered.

The grant program will be administered by the ReCell Center, a national collaboration of industry, academia and national laboratories working together to advance technologies for recycling batteries. The center is located at Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago.

Up to eight projects will be funded, with an anticipated performance period of one year. These projects will be tasked with de-risking and scaling up novel processes for recycling and reusing materials from the more than 2 million tons of lithium-ion batteries projected to be available within the decade.

Targeted project focus areas include:

• Development of a room temperature process for recycling and reusing electrodes.
• Remanufacturing of electrodes for direct reuse.
• Recycling of electrolytes.
• Education and workforce development.

Support will be prioritized for projects in a state or states that have lithium mining or lithium-ion battery manufacturing operations.