Battery materials company American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) has established a new laboratory as it focuses on developing a US lithium-ion battery materials supply.
The laboratory is based at its Research Development Center housed at the Nevada Center for Applied Research (NCAR) at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR).
The Research Development Center team will focus on developing battery metal extraction technologies for both the recycling of spent batteries and for the manufacturing of primary battery metals.
The company aims to manufacture battery cathode grade lithium hydroxide, nickel, cobalt, and manganese products from its recycling operations, and manufacture battery cathode grade lithium hydroxide from its primary Nevada-based lithium-bearing sedimentary materials supply.
The firm’s CEO Ryan Melsert said: “To be able to implement our own internally-developed analytical chemistry procedures to certify the quality of our specialty chemical products is a true enabler to accelerating the commercialisation of our in-house developed processes and a differentiator within this industry.
“With this expansion into our fifth laboratory within the NCAR at UNR, we can now perform all of these operations within a single facility, further accelerating our path forward.”
Battery development growth
ABTC’s technology team has been based at NCAR’s development facilities since March 2021.
It has expanded from a single laboratory to five private and shared laboratories totalling more than 3,000 ft2.
The company is building a pre-commercial lithium-ion battery recycling plant in northern Nevada.
It is also undergoing a commercial-scale development and demonstration project in collaboration with BASF and C4V, through a grant awarded by the US Department of Energy in collaboration with the US Advanced Battery Consortium– a subsidiary of the United States Council for Automotive Research, which is a collaborative technology company comprised of General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
