Contract

Available for Licensing: Dimethyl Ether-Driven Rejuvenation Technology for Lithium-Ion Battery Cell Reuse

Agency: ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF / ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF
Location: Idaho Falls, ID
Amount: Amount not listed
Deadline: Closes in 14 days (Aug 1, 2026)
Posted: Jun 18, 2026
Set-aside: None (open competition)
NAICS code: 562920

What this contract is for

Overview This technology introduces a dimethyl ether (DME)-driven method for rejuvenating end-of-life lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells, with the goal of restoring electrochemical performance without dismantling the cell into constituent materials. Conventional LIB recycling requires mechanical disassembly, crushing, and downstream hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical separation of anode, cathode, and electrolyte fractions, followed by reconstruction of new components. The DME-driven approach is intended to recondition spent cells so that the existing electrode architecture remains intact and reusable. By acting directly on the assembled cell, the method is designed to recover electrochemical functionality through a substantially simplified process flow. Preliminary electrochemical data generated during development supports the technical feasibility of the approach. If validated at larger scale, the technology may offer a recycling pathway that materially reduces process complexity, capital intensity, and reagent consumption compared with established LIB recycling routes. Industry Need Current LIB recycling infrastructure relies on multi-step processes that consume significant energy and reagents. End-of-life cells are typically shredded, with recovered black mass treated through hydrometallurgical leaching, solvent extraction, or high-temperature pyrometallurgical processing to isolate metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. These recovered materials must then be reprocessed into battery-grade precursors and reassembled into new cells. The associated unit operations introduce capital cost, operating cost, and environmental burden, and there is presently no commercialized method to recondition or rejuvenate LIB cells or their principal components for dir...

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