Processing and Manufacturing Research

Batteries rely on critical metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel—materials the United States largely imports. As electronics continue to advance, demand for these critical metals grows. Meanwhile, approximately 250,000 tons of spent batteries are discarded in the United States each year, representing a growing domestic source of critical metals. Recovering them efficiently remains a challenge, as conventional battery recycling methods are energy-intensive and often generate large amounts of hazardous waste.

At NLR, researchers are developing scalable, low-waste microbial approaches to recover critical metals from battery waste. By using acid-loving microorganisms capable of mobilizing metals under extreme conditions in a process called bioleaching, researchers can recover the critical metals from spent batteries. However, metal toxicity is a key limitation preventing this biotechnology from widespread adoption. Additional research focuses evolutionary engineering of these microbes to tolerate high concentrations of lithium, cobalt, and nickel, resulting in increased metal recovery.

Contact: Alli Werner

Lithium-ion batteries contain many critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, and graphite. Recycling batteries enables manufacturers to capture and reuse these critical minerals.

To develop cost-effective methods for recovering critical minerals and materials from spent batteries, NLR collaborates with the ReCell Advanced Battery Recycling Consortium. The consortium helps the United States compete in the global recycling industry and reduce its reliance on foreign sources of battery materials.

Contact: Matt Keyser

Lithium-ion batteries contain many critical minerals and materials, including lithium, cobalt, and graphite. Many battery supply chains rely on the same sources which introduces supply chain risk. Procuring materials domestically for domestic manufacturing has the potential to improve supply chain security. However, because new sources of battery materials introduce risks relative to conventional, trusted supplies, it can take many years to validate and adopt them.

NLR partners with the Enhanced Validation of Advanced Battery Supply Chain Consortium to reduce the time and cost associated with adopting domestic sources through:

• Understanding the source of impurity impacts on material properties and performance to inform qualification decisions and cost-performance tradeoffs
• Developing a suite of tools and processes to decrease validation time for domestic battery materials to support material manufacturers and battery application manufacturers.

Contact: Katie Harrison

By leveraging a vast design space encompassing electrolyte chemistry, operating temperature, and electrochemical potential, molten salt electrochemistry enables precise control over reaction pathways that are inaccessible in conventional aqueous or pyrometallurgical processes. These advantages create efficient pathways for material extraction, purification, and upgrading.

This versatility is well-suited for applications including electrodeposition, mineral beneficiation, feedstock separation, recycling, and bulk materials synthesis with particular relevance to critical minerals essential for energy, defense, and advanced manufacturing technologies. NLR has demonstrated this approach through electrochemical iron carburization, tunable carbon synthesis, silicon production, and selective separation of steel scrap under industrially relevant conditions.

Contacts: Robert Bell and Kerry Rippy

The growth of novel ironmaking and steelmaking processes—such as direct-reduced iron, electric arc furnace steelmaking, and electric smelting ironmaking—requires robust research and development to enable domestic steelmakers to remain globally competitive. NLR is leading advanced iron and steel research, with active projects across the production chain, including ore analysis, shaft-furnace and arc-furnace modeling, novel carbon feedstock development, plasma reduction, and tramp-element removal.

Contacts: Robert Bell and Kerry Rippy