The CMI technology for electrochemical leaching was developed at CMI Team member Idaho National Laboratory and participated in Cohort 12 of the Energy I-Corps program through the Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office, which has since been restructured to the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) and the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). Since graduating from the program, the team’s technology has been licensed in the battery sector and other companies are pursuing licenses including in the mining sector.
Airtronics, Inc., an aircraft manufacturing facility and defense contractor, recently negotiated a license with INL to begin scaling the battery materials extraction process.
“What made [the technology] immediately attractive is the growing demand for recycled materials,” Frank Oliver, Airtronics’ chief technology officer said. “It fits into a number of different processes, and we are designing a scaled-up system.”
Another commercialization lead started from within the team itself. Juan Carlos Villatoro served as the industry mentor for the INL EC Leach’s Energy I-Corps team. Villatoro is CEO of Alquimista, a metals processing company that focuses on securing supply chains of minerals critical to national security.
After working with the INL team through Energy I-Corps and learning more about their technology, Villatoro now plans to license INL’s electrochemical technology for use in another market beyond batteries - mining. The INL technology recovers precious metals from gold and silver mining waste for reuse.
See the full story: The EC Leach Team’s Recycling Technology Already in High Demand