PublishedGraphite has recently been classified as a “critical need” mineral for national security by the US government due to its key role inand other significant technologies. Regrettably, around 80% of the present supply is sourced overseas, mostly from China.
The new two-year project, which Ramaco Carbon and ORNL are funding jointly through a DOE Fossil Energy & Carbon Management Program Field Work Proposal, will concentrate on scaling up a procedure that has already demonstrated success at the bench scale at ORNL.
Researchers at ORNL are putting up a technoeconomic analysis that indicates the novel technique will be less expensive than the petroleum-based alternative. “We try not to oversell research in early stages, but if it is successful, then the ability to use lower cost coal as the feedstock to make synthetic graphite could be transformational,” said Randall Atkins, Chairman and CEO of Ramaco. “The multi-year ongoing public-private partnership with ORNL has allowed us to make some unique and substantial technology advances in that direction.
Big Gov-ment keeps tellin' me Carbon is bad though. Why would electric vehicles and batteries need that evil fossil element?