Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Nth Cycle, an alum of the second cohort of the “Innovation Crossroads” program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, officially opened its new 21,000-square foot refining facility in Fairfield, OH on Monday.

The innovative critical metals extraction and recycling company announced plans for the facility in July 2023 (see teknovation.biz article here). The plant will feature Nth Cycle’s electro-extraction technology which will recover the outputs of metal scrap, electronics waste, untapped mining resources, and refinery waste into critical metal products including nickel and cobalt through its premium Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP) product. Nth Cycle’s MHP, produced from its patented electro-extraction processor named “the OYSTER,” yields unprecedented metal and mineral purity with the highest concentration of nickel hydroxide and cobalt hydroxide available.

“We have no refining capacity in the U.S. at all for these types of materials,” said Megan O’Connor, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nth Cycle. “We will be the first commercial cobalt nickel refinery in the U.S., which we’re very excited about.”

Nth Cycle received $7.2 million under the Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit (48C) program of the “Inflation Reduction Act.”

In December, the company announced that it had closed a $37 million Series B round and an additional $7 million in non-dilutive financing, led by VoLo Earth Ventures, a Colorado-based venture firm focused on climate solutions; MassMutual through the MM Catalyst Fund I, which invests in rural-based and Black-led businesses based in Massachusetts; Caterpillar Venture Capital Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives; and Equinor Ventures, the venture capital arm of Equinor, a multinational energy company.

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