The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input for a potential ARPA-E program focused on leveraging material, process, equipment, and cross-supply chain manufacturing innovations to catalyze domestic production of cathode active materials (CAMs) and their precursors (pCAMs). Recent legislation in the United States incentivizes domestic production of electric vehicles (EVs) and onshoring of the EV battery supply chain. A key step in the EV battery supply chain is the production of pCAM and CAM. Presently, production of both pCAM and CAM is heavily concentrated outside the U.S. Domestic pCAM and CAM production would bolster U.S. energy security and enable the creation of secure and resilient critical mineral supply chains. However, present pCAM production methods generate large volumes of hazardous waste (e.g., sulfates) and suffer from limited throughput. Subsequent conversion of pCAM into CAM relies on energy-intensive, high-temperature processing methods that suffer from limited throughput. Energy intensity and limited throughput for conventional methods are among major hurdles to domestic CAM production. As a result, new innovations in pCAM and CAM manufacturing are needed to develop scalable and sustainable domestic EV battery supply chains.
Despite recent growth of the EV market, relatively few new companies have entered the pCAM market. This is likely because pCAM synthesis is a low-margin business, involves variable operating costs due to fluctuations in raw material prices, and is challenging to permit due to regulatory factors. Efforts to create a domestic pCAM and CAM supply chain should focus on inspiring new commercial manufacturing paradigms for pCAM and CAM, rather than reverse engineering existing practices. For domestic commercial implementation, new innovations in pCAM and CAM synthesis must afford materials whose quality and economics are commensurate, but preferably superior to, presently available options. Future chemical process roadmaps for domestic pCAM and CAM production must consider factors such as throughput, energy efficiency, hazardous waste generation, and domestic raw material supply, among others. Finally, the primary CAMs of interest to this RFI are lithium-based chemistries that have been validated for commercial deployment in EVs and consumer electronics [e.g., lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC), lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA), lithium iron phosphate (LFP)].
Concepts specifically of interest to this RFI, either alone or in combination, include but are not limited to the following:
- Continuous flow reactors and processes for pCAM production
- One-pot, continuous flow reactors and processes for combining pCAM and CAM production into a single step
- Production pathways that incorporate process intensity by combining two or more individual steps and/or eliminate the requirement for one or more steps without compromising pCAM/CAM quality
- pCAM produced from abundant and low-cost precursors sourced domestically
- pCAM processing that uses conventional or modified precursor strategies but can tolerate lower-grade feedstocks without compromising pCAM/CAM properties
- Significant reduction and/or complete elimination of hazardous waste types and volumes during pCAM production
- Processes that improve the energy efficiency of pCAM/CAM production
- Processes and practices that can achieve significantly increased pCAM/CAM throughput
- pCAM/CAM production concepts that can be integrated and practiced at large commercial scales
- Extreme, process-intensive, and continuous production methods that remove, eliminate, or combine steps in the supply chain (e.g., direct ore conversion routes)
- Circular techniques that utilize and/or valorize all waste and emission streams
Areas Not of Interest for Responses to this RFI:
- “Next-generation” and/or exploratory battery cathode materials and chemistries that have not been extensively validated in commercial applications
- Obvious process solutions that represent incremental improvements in conventional pCAM and/or CAM production
- Incremental improvements in batch production methods for pCAM and/or CAM materials
- Concepts that lead to higher overall production costs compared to conventional processes
- Process solutions that generate hazardous waste at volumes and/or toxicity greater than conventional practices for producing pCAM/CAM
- Concepts that require expensive and/or supply chain-constrained raw materials
- pCAM/CAM production that requires highly customized equipment that cannot be manufactured and/or procured at required sizes/volumes
RFI Guidelines:
Note that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.
The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration to inform the possible formulation of future research programs. ARPA-E will not provide funding or compensation for any information submitted in response to this RFI, and ARPA-E may use information submitted to this RFI without any attribution to the source. This RFI provides the broad research community with an opportunity to contribute views and opinions.
No material submitted for review will be returned and there will be no formal or informal debriefing concerning the review of any submitted material. ARPA-E may contact respondents to request clarification or seek additional information relevant to this RFI. All responses provided will be considered, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual submissions or publish a compendium of responses. Respondents shall not include any information in the response to this RFI that could be considered proprietary or confidential.
Responses to this RFI should be submitted in PDF format to the email address ARPA-E-RFI@hq.doe.gov by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on July 10, 2024.