India’s Lohum Cleantech to jointly set up $30 mn lithium-ion battery processing unit in US

New Delhi, Sep 26
Homegrown battery-tech startup company Lohum Cleantech on Thursday announced to set up a lithium-ion battery materials processing facility in the US with ReElement Technologies and American Metals for $30 million.

The joint 15.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) facility will be set up with an initial investment of $30 million, creating 250 “green jobs”.

The partnership is expected to initially supply over 315,000 electric vehicles annually with continued growth based on feedstock availability.

The initial operating location will be at the Marion Advanced Technology Center in the state of Indiana, and expand to other locations as determined by the joint venture parties, the companies said in a statement.

“The joint venture will be instrumental in building resilient critical material supply chains in the US that can sustain themselves through circularity. This is an inspiring development in US-India technology collaboration through market entities,” said Rajat Verma, Founder and CEO, Lohum.

The integrated end-to-end battery and critical minerals lifecycle management facility will host the entire value chain from battery cell testing and segregation for second-life energy storage applications to recycling, mineral refining, engineered materials, and battery-grade products.

The facility will produce critical materials with purity levels greater than 99.5 per cent, which can then circulate in the US domestic battery ecosystem.

Mark Jensen, Chairman of American Metals and ReElement Technologies said they have been working with Lohum to figure out how to leverage “our unique capabilities and world-leading technologies at ReElement along with the innovative and scaled up approach to critical mineral’s recycling and refining that Lohum has established”.

In March this year, Lohum raised $54 million (Rs 450 crore) in series B funding from Singularity Growth, Baring Private Equity, Cactus Venture Partners and Venture East, among others.

Lohum offers an end-to-end, in-house ecosystem of battery recycling, battery repurposing, transition materials refining and Cathode Active Material (CAM) which is an integrated battery lifecycle management.