The ecological impact of fossil fuels and conventional power sources is leading to an increasing demand for electric vehicles (EV) and renewable energy storage. One key to mitigating current challenges lies in batteries, but there are numerous issues. China dominates cell manufacturing, and relatively few of them are sustainably manufactured. Massive investment in cell manufacturing in the USA will help solve part of the problem, but there is still a significant gap in the North American materials supply chain.
One company working to overcome the challenges for U.S. companies building batteries in an eco-friendly and cost-effective manner is NexGen Materials, a company bringing new approaches to solving the domestic battery materials shortfall. NexGen’s material sourcing and processing adopts an innovative, eco-friendly approach to support US battery cell production that will help build a U.S. based materials industry.
“Our investments in battery materials processing methods are driven by the desire to ensure that electric vehicles and renewable energy generation impacts the environment in a way that does NOT just shift “eco-damage” from one part of the world to another,” says Mike Riley, founder and CEO of NexGen Materials.
As an example, NexGen has developed a novel, green, and cost-effective business process to create the graphite needed for EV and stationary storage batteries. NexGen’s novel production technique uses a processed waste product to develop cost-effective synthetic graphite. This method will achieve a milestone in sustainability as it helps clean up environmental waste with nearly zero CO2 emissions compared to mining natural graphite or creating synthetic graphite from methane.
Its eco-friendly approach to multiple materials is built upon this unique business model, co-opting values of corporations, investors, and partners. NexGen’s team strategically focuses on materials with a projected supply versus demand shortfall of at least five years, and selects material sources that offer both cost-competitive advantages and assured availability. Once the source material is identified, NexGen assembles a highly efficient capital stack to support technological advancement and profitability.
NexGen’s experts choose a specific substrate, taking projected profitability, environmental impact, and safety aspects into consideration. NexGen then determines how to optimize material processing with a focus on taking those processes to industrial scale. This model not only ensures securing critical materials like lithium and graphite for the domestic production of battery cells, but other critical materials as well.
Our battery materials processing methods are driven by the desire to ensure that we are NOT just shifting eco-damage from one part of the world to another
NexGen has sponsored a local university PhD’s innovative method to liberate lithium from various waste piles. This will aid NexGen’s upcoming project to manufacture lithium iron phosphate cathode active materials used in EV and energy storage battery cells. In a longer-term project, NexGen will sustainably produce highly purified silicon carbide powder, the principal material used in making high-voltage wide bandgap power semiconductors.
NexGen’s pioneering methodology offers a competitive edge in lowering production costs, while providing fast-path optimization of commercialization. A small and nimble company, they move fast and efficiently in their projects. Collaborations with PhD’s and joint venture partner industry professionals further enable their innovation in battery materials sourcing and processing techniques.
NexGen’s joint venture business model also offers additional benefits. Many in the EV battery materials sourcing space rely on physical resources that can be a very great distance away (one graphite company imports from Mozambique—8700 miles by barge from their plant). By leveraging local partnerships in smaller regional joint ventures, NexGen anticipates the time when less elevated materials pricing will require key factors like the cost of transportation, which will impact the profitability of materials processing businesses.
