Birla Carbon plans US synthetic graphite plant

Birla Carbon is moving forward with a $1 billion plant in South Carolina to produce synthetic graphite, an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The Indian firm received a $150 million grant for the project from the US Department of Energy in September . Birla says it will use a new manufacturing process that consumes less energy than conventional graphite production methods. Firms in China produce nearly 70% of the world’s synthetic graphite and process virtually all natural graphite materials, according to the research firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence . Last year, the Chinese government imposed restrictions on graphite exports . Companies in the US produce about 5% of the world’s synthetic graphite and no natural graphite. Several other firms are also trying to increase US graphite production . Anovion Technologies began building an $800 million synthetic graphite plant in Georgia last year, and Epsilon Advanced Materials is planning a $650 million