The Department of Energy and Amazon are using artificial intelligence to advance technologies that recover and recycle minerals like battery-grade graphite from discarded clothing and other waste.
Amazon will combine its AI capabilities and sprawling supply chains with the scientific expertise of DOE’s Ames National Laboratory to explore ways to produce graphite — the main ingredient in electric vehicles batteries — from post-consumer textiles. The department will also work with teams from Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing platform, to explore the recovery of critical minerals like gallium from used electronics hardware.
Assistant Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson said in a statement that recovery of minerals from waste streams at scale could transform domestic critical materials supply chain. China largely controls the raw materials in those supply chains.
The government has for years been pushing to tap into waste streams to secure valuable minerals.
