Brisbane based battery innovator in running for $150m in US government funding

ASX-listed and Brisbane based battery materials firm Novonix has been tapped to receive $US150 million in grant funding from the US Department of Energy to expand its production of high-performance, synthetic graphite anode materials.

Novonix says its Anode Materials division has been selected to enter negotiations to receive the funding, which will weigh up final project details including total project costs, operational milestones, and timing of access to grant funds.

All going to plan, the grant will go towards construction of a 30,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) US manufacturing facility, including site selection, plant layout, and engineering design with capability for additional expansion.

The news helped underpin a big 26 per cent jump in the company’s share price on Thursday, before it settled with a 10 per cent gain, only partly reversing heavy falls in the stock in recent months.

Novonix counts lithium-ion battery pioneer Jeff Dahn as its “chief scientific advisor” – a role that kicked off in July 2021.

The year before, Novonix announced a patented dry particle granulation technology to increase efficiency and reduce the cost of manufacturing anode and cathode materials.

US battery supply chain build-out

The proposed funding comes from the first phase of more than $7 billion in total provided by US President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles and the grid, with a focus on building up the domestic supply chain.

DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) was set up to strengthen and secure manufacturing and energy supply chains needed to underpin the energy transition.

MESC will manage the portfolio of projects with support from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office.

“We are proud to have been selected to negotiate this funding in recognition of our readiness to accelerate the domestic battery supply chain and meet growing global demand from the electric vehicle and stationary grid storage markets,” said Novonix co-founder and CEO Chris Burns.

“Since inception, our mission has been to enhance batteries through innovation and pave the way for the clean energy transformation.

“We are excited to partner with the DOE to further our mission of establishing a domestic supply chain for synthetic graphite used in lithium-based batteries and creating long-term sustainable value for our stakeholders.”

Novonix says it is already on track to reach an annual production capacity of 10,000 tpa of synthetic graphite in 2023 at its existing Riverside facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with plans to expand this to 40,000 tpa in 2025 and 150,000 tpa in 2030.

The company plans to build the facility proposed under this project to allow for subsequent expansion to support up to 75,000 tpa and will continue to seek other potential government funding opportunities for additional project funding, it says.