在一周内的第二次听证会上，重点是推动国内清洁能源转型所需的关键矿物质短缺，参议院能源和自然资源委员会于4月7日听到行业高管听到该国需要采取多方面的方法来满足指数需求用于电池生产 - 包括组件回收，研发，税收抵免和制造业投资。

"We’re headed toward a cliff edge," said Duncan Wood, a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "There are not enough materials being produced.”

The committee hearing followed3月31日这指出了努力促进基于美国的关键矿产采矿和加工，包括总统命令援引《国防生产法》以增加联邦激励措施。

The technology to recycle and refine materials from old batteries is already available, but the U.S. needs to build battery cell manufacturing capability, said J.B. Straubel, CEO of Redwood Materials and a former Tesla executive. “The two most critical and expensive components of lithium-ion batteries, the cathode and the anode, are produced via a convoluted supply chain based almost entirely in Asia,” he told the committee.

Redwood recovers, on average, 95% of the metals from batteries, such as nickel, cobalt, lithium and copper, and uses them to remanufacture anode and cathode components domestically that can be supplied to U.S. battery cell manufacturers, Straubel said.

The company is developing a fully closed-loop, domestic component supply chain that involves collecting and recycling end-of-life lithium-ion batteries from consumer devices, electric vehicles and energy storage systems, refining their minerals and re-manufacturing them into battery materials that can go directly to U.S. battery manufacturers.

Redwood receives about 6 GWh end-of-life lithium-ion batteries annually, which equates to about 60,000-80,000 electric vehicles or 20,000 metric tons of material every year for recycling, according to Straubel.

他说：“随着两种消费者设备的不断增加，随着第一波电动汽车开始退休，可用于回收的寿命末电池将在未来几年内飙升。”

Straubel说，美国需要迅速加强国内电池材料供应链，并使用最高比例的当地再生和原材料来实现该国的电气化和清洁能源目标。

在全球范围内，对锂离子电池的需求预计将增长超过500％，以满足运输的快速电气化，并增加了储存间歇性可再生能源的需求。他说，美国需要一个端到端的锂离子电池供应链。

Redwood还专注于扩展阴极的活性材料和铜箔的生产，由于所需的关键矿物质，占电池成本的近65％。该公司去年宣布，该公司打算在2025年建造一家在该地点的估计$ 10亿美元的加工厂以扩大其处理能力。

“今天，美国不在国内生产这些组件。在美国，集成的锂离子电池电池回收和制造阴极活动材料和电池铜箔对于降低锂离子电池的成本至关重要。”他说。新利18备用官网登录

但是零排放运输协会执行董事约瑟夫·布里顿（Joseph Britton）作证说，回收利用可以贡献约10％以满足关键的矿产需求，但需要创新，以减少所需的材料量。

Participants at an April 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology conference noted successes with use of sodium-ion batteries, in performance, safety and cost-savings, said a report in Utility Dive. Also promising is metal-air technology, which appears to offer twice the battery life of lithium-ion batteries, researchers said. Others are experimenting with recycling EV batteries that lack vehicle capacity for energy storage use.