Electrolyte

started doing this research, then I looked into electrolytes, right? I mean, it's crazy.

Almost 94% or more of electrolyte products from Gatorades to the powdered products have microplastics inside.

And this was years ago when people were rarely talking about this yet.

But I was like, this is messed up.

So that was a challenge in itself of finding even a factory in the world to not only produce our product, and it's very proprietary because we wanted to make it as natural as possible.

I'll give an example.

Most electrolyte products have at least five to 10 ingredients in their product.

Coloring, sugar, you name it, citric acid, anti-caking agents, table salt, which is the number one ingredient.

Welcome to Sustainability SoundBytes, presented by e and eLeader.

DOE's latest battery grants target the electrolyte gap, A new round of federal battery materials funding and a Kentucky groundbreaking are both converging on the same overlooked choke point, electrolyte, a component where domestic cell assembly has outpaced domestic materials production.

The Trump administration's Department of Energy announced $500 million in grants on Aug. 20 for seven domestic critical mineral and battery material projects, spanning lithium extraction, cobalt refining, battery recycling, electrolyte chemicals, and silicon-based anode technology.

The award is the third round under DOE's battery materials processing and battery manufacturing and recycling programs, which have now directed close to $2.3 billion to more than 20 projects since 2022.

That the funding keeps landing on materials rather than finished cells reflects a specific vulnerability DOE's own December 2024 supply chain review identified.

Chinese firms hold roughly 70 to 90% of global production capacity at several midstream choke points, including electrolyte, separator and active anode and cathode materials, a share the U.S. Energy Information Administration separately put at 82% for electrolyte production as of 2022.

A Kentucky groundbreaking illustrates the gap.

Anthro Energy, a Stanford spinout, broke ground this week on the Louisville, Kentucky facility, a $42 million plant expected to produce about 12,000 metric tons of advanced polymer electrolyte annually, enough to support up to 25 gigawatt hours of lithium-ion battery production when it enters operation in late 2027.