Producing battery materials in the US: interview with Ascend Elements co-founder Eric Gratz

Eric Gratz, Co-founder & CTO - Ascend Elements; Henry Sanderson, Executive Editor - Benchmark Mineral Intelligence

Our guest this week is Eric Gratz, co-founder and CTO of Ascend Elements. Ascend has built America’s first factory to produce battery precursor material, or pCAM, using material from recycling lithium-ion batteries. China dominates production of pCAM, with 90% of current production capacity, according to Benchmark’s Precursor cathode active material assessment. Ascend was founded in 2015, based on work done by Gratz and others at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The company says it can make pCAM and cathode active materials more efficiently than current methods, and with a lower carbon footprint.In this interview, which was filmed at the end of last year, Gratz talks about when its Kentucky p-Cam facility will start; why the company’s production of lithium has a lower carbon footprint; dealing with a price downturn and much more!