The Trump Administration Discontinued the Final $100 Million of the DOE Grant for Construction of Ascend Elements’ APEX 1 in Kentucky
This story flew under the radar today, mostly because of the export restrictions announced by China.
It has been confirmed that the Trump administration has discontinued the remaining $100 million of the $319 million grant for Ascend Elements’ Hopkinsville, Kentucky, lithium-ion recycling plant.
This cut is part of the current administration’s downsizing of funding initiatives started under the Biden administration to build a circular economy in the United States. Lithium-ion recycling is central to transitioning from a system based upon burning hydrocarbons to one that recovers and reuses materials from the equipment and devices used to generate and store electricity, which are then used to produce the next generation of equipment and storage systems.
However, as seen in Texas, battery energy storage is rapidly becoming an essential part of an all-of-the-above energy infrastructure. It not only there for emergency situations but also enables load shifting, which means storing electricity when demand is low and generation is high, and discharging it when demand is high and generation is low. This helps balance the grid, prevent outages, and make electricity supply more efficient and reliable.
The facility in Kentucky will process end-of-life batteries and production scrap to produce precursor cathode active material (pCAM). That pCAM, along with the lithium precursor, will then be used to create the cathode active material for new lithium-ion cells. Ironically, what Ascend Elements will be producing is exactly what China restricted with their announcement 58 today.
3C901.a.2. Items related to precursors for ternary cathode materials:
Nickel-cobalt-manganese hydroxide (Reference tariff line: 28539030)
Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Hydroxide (Refer to Tariff Heading: 28539050)
This is a statement from Linh Austin, President & CEO, Ascend Elements
The DOE’s decision regarding the grant doesn’t change our trajectory. We’re moving forward. Ascend Elements is already producing >99% pure recycled lithium carbonate at commercial scale in Covington, Georgia, and we’re scaling output in the U.S. and Europe toward ~15,000 metric tons annually by 2027. Importantly, our funding path is diversified well beyond DOE. We are replacing the remaining unused portion of the DOE grant with a mix of other sources of funding available to the company including equity, project finance, municipal bonds, and other forms of debt.. Our Kentucky project remains strategic. While construction at Apex 1 is paused, we will restart beginning in 2026, with both lithium extraction and pCAM lines aligned with commercial offtakes. Our business economics are not predicated on grants, but by Customer Demand, Operational Excellence and our patented Hydro-to-Cathode® technology.”
There is a lot more to this story, and I hope to connect with Ascend Elements over the next few days to gather further information and possibly have a few questions answered. I will then provide a full write-up, including all the technical details about the company’s lithium-ion recycling platform. The way they use the graphite in the battery as the source of carbon for their early-stage lithium recovery is fascinating. I will always jump at any opportunity to write about that component and the rest of their lithium-ion recycling platform.
So my first reaction to the article is, they don't need the money. They don't want to be a partner with the US government, and they can command their own destiny.