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American-Made Challenges

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Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize

Identify innovative solutions for collecting, sorting, storing, and transporting spent lithium-ion batteries.

This challenge is closed

Energy, Environment & Resources Science Technology
stage:
Participants Day completed
prize:
$5.5 million in total prizes

This challenge is closed

Energy, Environment & Resources Science Technology
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Summary
Timeline
Updates35
Forum38
Teams650
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Evaluation Entities
Summary

Overview

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize

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. 

Learn more about how to become an Evaluation Entity. 

View legal agreement
Timeline

Challenge Timeline

start
Jan. 17, 2019, 6 a.m. PST
Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Competition Announced
Feb. 15, 2019, 7:58 a.m. PST
Date Launched
Aug. 1, 2019, 11:59 p.m. PDT
Phase I Submission Deadline
Sept. 25, 2019, 11 a.m. PDT
Phase I Winner Announcement
Jan. 13, 2020, 11 p.m. PST
Phase II Kickoff Webinar
Official start of Phase II Contest
Feb. 13, 2020, 1:45 p.m. PST
Phase II Partnering Event
Partnering opportunity for participants and industry stakeholders.

https://naatbatt.org/conference-agenda-2020/
July 22, 2020, 5 a.m. PDT
Phase II Demo Day
Oct. 13, 2020, 8:59 p.m. PDT
Phase II Submission Deadline
Nov. 11, 2020, 11 p.m. PST
Phase II Participant's Day
November 12 - 13, 2020.

Virtual Event.
Jan. 26, 2021, 11 p.m. PST
Phase III Kickoff Webinar
April 8, 2022, 10:59 p.m. PDT
Phase III Submission Deadline
July 11, 2023, 10 a.m. PDT
Breakthrough Kickoff
Meet with Prize Administrator and learn about Breakthrough and Phase IV.
https://www.herox.com/BatteryRecyclingPrize/update/5756
July 28, 2023, 7 a.m. PDT
Enter
Track 2 Voucher Application & Progress Update opens

(only applicable to competitors advancing from Phase III)
Aug. 4, 2023, 2 p.m. PDT
Submission Deadline
Track 2 Voucher Application & Progress Update closes

(only applicable to competitors advancing from Phase III)
Aug. 8, 2023, 3 a.m. PDT
Industry Collaboration Event
Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Networking Reception
The Center | The Heritage Group
Indianapolis, IN
Aug. 17, 2023, 11 a.m. PDT
Enter
Breakthrough Contest Opens for Submissions
Oct. 4, 2023, 2 p.m. PDT
Evaluation Entity Webinar
Register here: https://nrel.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_IYuLN_kkSNKGvRvw-Z43Vw
Aug. 30, 2024, 2 p.m. PDT
Submission Deadline
Breakthrough Contest Submission Deadline
Sept. 5, 2024, 11 p.m. PDT
Judging
Breakthrough Contest online submission review begins
Oct. 14, 2024, 10:59 p.m. PDT
Judging Closed
Breakthrough Contest online submission review ends
Oct. 31, 2024, 10:59 p.m. PDT
Participants Day completed
All Breakthrough Contest Participants Day events completed by this date (subject to change)
finish
Nov. 23, 2024, 5:40 a.m. PST
You are here
Updates35

Challenge Updates

Prize Submissions Due THIS FRIDAY!

Aug. 27, 2024, 12:05 p.m. PDT by Prize Administrator

This is your final reminder that the submission deadline for the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Breakthrough Contest is Friday, August 30 at 5 p.m. ET. We encourage you to send in your final submission as soon as possible to avoid any last-minute technical difficulties. 

We look forward to reviewing your submissions!

Breakthrough Contest Closes in Two Weeks

Aug. 16, 2024, 9:15 a.m. PDT by Prize Administrator

Calling all innovators! The submission deadline for the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Breakthrough Contest is in two weeks on Friday, August 30 at 5 p.m. ET. 

Access the submission templates for Track 1: New Competitors or Track 2: Verified Competitors and read the Official Prize Rules in the HeroX Resources tab. 

Here’s what a full submission looks like:

  • Executive summary
  • Technical narrative
  • Identified Evaluation Entity and summary of the Overview Information and Evaluation Plan for Phase IV
  • Outline of team and resources
  • 90-second video 

Don’t miss this chance to win up to $200,000 for your innovative idea!

Breakthrough Contest Submission Deadline is This Month!

Aug. 1, 2024, 10:57 a.m. PDT by Prize Administrator

The Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Breakthrough Contest submission deadline is Friday, August 30. New participants and prior winners of the prize are invited to share their innovative solutions for collecting, sorting, storing, and transporting spent lithium-ion batteries. The Breakthrough contest will award up to $2M in cash prizes, with up to ten Breakthrough winners receiving $200,000. These winners will advance to Phase IV of the competition to show how effectively their solution contributes to establishing infrastructure to move spent or discarded LIBs from consumers to recyclers across all commercial uses.

Before you submit your prize application, we recommend you:

If you have any additional questions, contact us directly at

 

Learn More About Our Evaluation Entities

July 30, 2024, 11:25 a.m. PDT by Prize Administrator

As we draw closer to the Breakthrough Contest final submission deadline on Friday, August 30, 2024, prize teams should initiate collaborations with our approved Evaluation Entities to identify a proposed validation plan for their concept solution. To learn more about the organizations who have partnered with the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize, check out these Evaluation Entity Introductory Slides.  

For even more information about Evaluation Entities, watch this recording of our informational webinar. During this webinar, the prize administration team shared an overview of the roles and responsibilities of Evaluation Entities, including Evaluation Report templates for use in Phase IV. These reports are available under the Resources tab of HeroX. Prize teams should include a summary of the Overview Information and Evaluation Plan sections for their Breakthrough Phase Submission requirements (Section 4. Evaluation Entity).

If you have any questions about working with an Evaluation Entity, please contact .

Recharge Recycling with Breakthrough Recovery Solutions

June 25, 2024, 12:29 p.m. PDT by Prize Administrator

Competition is heating up in these final few months of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Breakthrough Contest. We are looking forward to learning more about your innovative solutions to improve the recovery of spent or discarded lithium-ion batteries. Breakthrough Contest final submissions are due Friday, August 30, 2024. 

Prize participants are responsible for contacting Evaluation Entities to identify a proposed validation plan for their concept solution. Prize teams should complete the Overview Information and Evaluation Plan sections of the Evaluation Report (Recycler or Second-Life) for their Breakthrough Phase Submission requirements (Section 4. Evaluation Entity). For the Phase IV work, the rest of the Evaluation Entity report should be completed by the Evaluation Entity and submitted as part of the final documentation package. This document is considered business sensitive and will only be shared with the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize review committee.

We will be sharing more information about the approved Evaluation Entity options in the next few weeks. If you have any questions about the Evaluation Entity process, please reach out to .

Forum38
Teams650
Entries
Resources
FAQ
Evaluation Entities