Dive Brief:
- 6K Energy will build a more than $200 million battery materials production plant in Jackson, Tennessee, to support U.S. EV manufacturing, Gov. Bill Lee’s office announced last week.
- The company will initially spend $166 million on construction and equipment, along with a $50 million Department of Energy grant, according to the release.
- The state said the facility will offer low-cost, sustainable production of cathode battery material using the company’s microwave plasma technology. The announcement did not include an opening date for the facility, but the Department of Energy said production is expected to begin in 2025.
Dive Insight:
6K Inc. was among the first batch of companies to receive grant funding from the Energy Department for projects expanding domestic battery production.
The $50 million is to help the company demonstrate the ability to produce multiple battery chemistries including lithium-iron phosphate and NMC811, a cathode composition high in nickel content, using its UniMelt plasma technology, according to a department fact sheet. The company’s process, based on high-frequency microwave plasma, will allow it to produce NMC811 with no waste and 70% fewer greenhouse gasses, as well as be less resource and energy intensive than traditional methods.
“UniMelt’s design flexibility can produce a much broader spectrum of battery chemistries with precise control over particle size and morphology,” according to the fact sheet. The technology allows a 6K plant to “produce an equivalent amount of battery materials while reducing the factory footprint by 50%.”
Production costs for the materials will be “significantly lower” than those sourced from China, the company said in October. It will rely on domestic feedstock from recycled battery materials and, eventually, its own metals.
“We are at a tipping point where investments in transformational technologies like our UniMelt microwave plasma will set us apart from China to help drive America’s energy independence,” CEO Aaron Bent said in a statement.
