Synthetic Graphite To Rescue US EV Battery Supply Chain

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Tariffs, and tariffs, and tariffs, oh my! The Nice and Highly effective Oz spoke once more of tariffs final night time, aiming to upstage a colleague who’s credited with tanking an important bipartisan price range invoice earlier this week. Whereas the 2 frenemies duke it out for consideration, US battery makers are left questioning what new tariffs will imply for graphite, a key ingredient within the EV battery provide chain. To not fear. The US will quickly get its personal home provide of artificial graphite, as soon as two new factories in Tennessee are up and operating.

Tennessee To Rescue EV Battery Provide Chain

Sustainably talking, the presence of artificial graphite within the EV battery provide chain isn’t all hearts and roses. The feedstock of desire for artificial graphite is needle coke, a type of the fossil fuel-derived substance petcoke. Producing artificial graphite can also be a time consuming, vitality intensive, and costly endeavor.

The choice is pure graphite, however the US has no graphite mines in operation nowadays, leaving battery producers weak to the vagaries of the worldwide provide chain.

It wouldn’t be so unhealthy if the worldwide graphite mining and refining trade was concentrated amongst US allies, however it’s not. Citing an evaluation by the Worldwide Power Company final yr, the agency S&P international famous that China accounts for about 70% of pure graphite mining globally, and almost 100% of graphite refining.

Tennessee Swoops In To Rescue The EV Battery Provide Chain

On the plus aspect, some stakeholders within the artificial graphite discipline have been re-engineering the method to chop the timeline whereas saving vitality and prices, too. That brings us to the Australian agency NOVONIX, which has provide you with an vitality saving induction-based course of. The corporate has been establishing store within the US by means of its Anode Supplies home subsidiary.

They don’t seem to be letting the grass develop beneath their ft. With an allocation of $100 million in cost-sharing funds from the US Division of Power by means of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation, and a $103 million tax credit score, the corporate has been upscaling its Riverside facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee to launch because the first large scale synthetic graphite factory in the US. The manufacturing facility is anticipated to be up and operating someday subsequent yr, with an output of 20,000 tpa (tons every year).

That’s only for starters. On December sixteenth, NOVONIX introduced a conditional mortgage of as much as $754.8 million from the Power Division’s infamous Mortgage Packages Workplace for a second artificial graphite facility, additionally to be situated in Chattanooga (see extra Loan Programs Office background here).

“At full capacity, the new facility is expected to produce approximately 31,500 tonnes per annum (“tpa”) of artificial graphite, which may assist the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries for roughly 325,000 EVs every year,” NOVONIX said, noting that full capability is anticipated in 2028. The corporate has additionally proposed to broaden the capability to 75,000 tpa.

All collectively, NOVONIX expects to fabricate artificial graphite for the EV battery provide chain on the charge of 150,000 tpa by 2030.

Extra EV Battery Jobs For Crimson State

The Power Division mortgage for the second manufacturing facility is conditional on an environmental evaluate and the satisfaction of key technical, monetary, and business parts earlier than it’s finalized, which may take a number of months. Within the meantime, the Power Division is already counting its EV battery provide chain chickens.

In a weblog submit on December 16, the company famous that nearly all the artificial graphite within the US is at the moment imported from China.

“Synthetic graphite can be manufactured at a higher purity than natural graphite, leading to improvements in battery performancereliability, and longevity,” the Power Division added.

The Power Division additionally anticipates that the brand new manufacturing facility will create 450 full time, everlasting jobs on high of 500 development jobs. As for the way they’re going to search out sufficient folks to fill these everlasting jobs, NOVONIX has had a footprint in Chattanooga since 2017, and it expects to leverage its neighborhood relations to work with excessive faculties and faculties on coaching and job preparation applications.

“The borrower has fostered partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, such as Tennessee State University and other local colleges to create benefits in disadvantaged communities,” the Power Division factors out, noting that the corporate already participates in job gala’s and different applications of the Engineering Division at Tennessee State College.

“As part of its continued commitment to local workers, NOVONIX will hire displaced fossil fuel workers through its relationships with Phillips 66 Company and Right Management,” the Power Division provides.

What Does Phillips 66 Have To Do With The EV Battery Provide Chain?

When you caught that factor about Phillips 66, that’s a key consider NOVONIX’s plans for the home EV battery provide chain. Again in 2021 Phillips 66 acquired a 16% stake within the firm. The 2 corporations adopted up in 2022 with a know-how settlement.

“Phillips 66 is a leading global manufacturer of specialty coke, a key precursor to the synthetic graphite anode material NOVONIX produces,” Phillips 66 defined in a press assertion. “The company is one of the few downstream companies with an in-house research and development organization.”

“Its Energy Research & Innovation group works on developing lower-carbon technologies to support the energy transition, including next-generation batteries,” Phillips 66 additionally says of itself.

About These Tariffs…

The EV battery provide chain is only one sector liable to disruption if a commerce warfare erupts. In the meantime, it has already erupted. Final yr China imposed new rules on its graphite exports, in obvious preparation for additional motion.

On December 19, NOVONIX introduced that it’s taking part in a petition from the American Lively Anode Materials Producers earlier than the US Division of Commerce and the Worldwide Commerce Fee, calling for an investigation into China’s graphite export coverage.

“The filing asserts China is harming the nascent domestic graphite industry by exporting artificially cheap battery-grade graphite into the U.S.,” NOVONIX defined, citing an estimated dumping margin of as much as 920%.

The US hasn’t produced any considerable quantity of pure graphite because the Fifties, so the US State Division can also be supporting different abroad provide chains akin to a graphite mine in Tanzaniawhich is beneath improvement by means of a deal between the Korean EV battery stakeholder POSCO and the Australian agency Black Rock Mining.

Work additionally continues apace on new EV battery formulation that eliminate graphite altogetherso control these new silicon batteries which are able to roll off the meeting line.

Comply with me through LinkTreeor @tinamcasey on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Picture (cropped): Tennessee will play a key position within the home EV battery provide chain, because the host of two new factories slated to supply synthetic graphite in bulk (courtesy of US DOE).