Innovation happens when the right resources, people, and passion come together to address a challenge. With the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize, teams of creative individuals, entrepreneurs, and businesses will advance conceptual solutions to prototypes and finally to pilot validations to address challenges with the lithium-ion battery recycling supply chain. The goal of this phased prize competition is to develop and demonstrate processes that, when scaled, have the potential to capture 90% of all discarded or spent lithium-ion batteries in the United States for eventual recovery of key materials for re-introduction into the supply chain.
Prize Continuation
Continuation of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize will leverage funds authorized in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to administer and award a total of $7.4 million in cash prizes and voucher support to prize participants over the next 3 years, approximately. This continuation is designed to bolster participation from new competitors while providing additional support to Phase III winning teams.
Breakthrough Competition
This new public contest aims to incentivize new submissions from battery industry entrepreneurs that demonstrate innovative solutions that work toward or deliver on the goal of the prize, while continuing to support the further development of Phase III winning solutions. This phase consists of two simultaneous competition tracks:
Track 1: New Competitors —Legal business entities based in the United States with single process ideas, partial solutions or full concept solutions that enable or meet the prize goal. Track 1 is open to new participants and previous competitors of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize. A single business entity may participate as a new competitor, or teams may be comprised of multiple businesses.
Track 2: Verified Competitors — Phase III winners are invited to further develop their concept solutions with the added support of a $100,000 noncash voucher to be spent at a Voucher Service Provider within the American-Made Network. Voucher work must support the continued validation and demonstration of their Phase III pilot-scale solutions.
Breakthrough will award up to $1.2 million total in cash prizes to up to six teams within Track 1: New Competitors and up to $800,000 total in cash prizes and $100,000 in voucher funding to up to four teams within Track 2: Verified Competitors. In total, Breakthrough will award up to $2.4 million in prizes to up to 10 winners. In addition, the 10 Breakthrough winners will be eligible to advance to Phase IV of the competition.
For more information about the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Breakthrough competition, refer to the official rules.
Evaluation Entities
The Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize is seeking qualified lithium-ion battery recyclers and second-life testing organizations to support Phase IV as Evaluation Entities. To become an approved Evaluation Entity, private organizations and facilities must first apply to become a Voucher Service Provider on the American-Made website.
The Phase II online submission deadline, October 13, 2020, is fast approaching. A template will be provided soon outlining the Phase II submission required components. These sections will match what is provided in "What to Submit" beginning on page 12 of the Phase II Rules and Scoring Criteria. The final submission will include a 15-page Proof of Concept and Partnering Narrative as well as a recorded video of concept validation, no more than three minutes long.
On July 22, 2020, the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize team hosted a virtual Demo Day event where participants demonstrated their concepts and select Voucher Service Providers from the American-Made Challenge Network gave short presentations on their capabilities. The presentation slides from Demo Day have been shared in the Resources section on HeroX: https://www.herox.com/BatteryRecyclingPrize/resource/498.
The Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University is hosting an informational webinar on intellectual property (IP) and patent processes for innovators and startups. The webinar, From Idea to Invention to Intellectual Property: What Startups and Innovators Need to Know, is on Thursday, June 11, 2020, at 11 a.m. ET.
Tune in to hear about IP best practices from legal experts at the national law firm and Network member Babst Calland, as well as Scott Institute entrepreneur Jay Whitacre. This webinar is free and will also have a Q&A session.
The official contest rules for Phase II of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize are now availableon the Resources page. These rules detail the important dates, submission criteria, and scoring criteria for the Phase II contest. As a reminder, only Phase I winners are eligible to compete in Phase II.
We look forward to watching the Phase I winners advance their concepts into end-to-end solutions.
Fifteen submissions that have been selected as Phase I winners were announced on September 25, 2019! To learn more about the submissions please visit the entries page. The Phase I winning teams have been contacted by the Battery Recycling Prize Team and are eligible to advance to the Phase II Contest as Phase II Competitors.
There were numerous, impressive submissions to the Phase I Contest of the Battery Recycling Prize. We want to thank all teams for competing in the Phase I Contest and hope you continue to be an active member of the Li-Ion Battery Recycling Prize community as there will be expanded opportunities throughout the Phase II Contest.
Should you have questions, please feel free to reach out at
