Ramaco Carbon and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are partnering on a two-year project to develop a process to facilitate large-scale production of coal-derived graphite, a key component used in manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles.
ORNL and Ramaco are jointly funding the project through a field work proposal for the Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Program with DOE, the company said Tuesday.
“Ramaco has worked with ORNL on other projects that have ties to the EV industry, such as the light-weighting of vehicles using coal-derived carbon fiber,” said James Dietz, one of Ramaco’s primary researchers on the project.
If successful, Dietz noted that the project could support the U.S. electric vehicle industry.
Ramaco plans to use equipment at its iCAM research facility in Wyoming to generate carbon from coal for use as a feedstock and produce synthetic graphite.