Securing Critical Materials Supply: CO₂ → Graphite

Homeostasis’ Block-3 Reactor prototype. A material sample production workhorse, gas digestion testbed, and scale-up demonstrator.

Summary

The advanced battery materials market faces a critical graphite supply crisis that threatens America's energy security and clean energy transition. More than 80% of the world's advanced graphite is produced in China [1], creating significant national security and supply chain vulnerabilities at a time when North American battery manufacturing capacity is set to increase substantially by 2030 [2].

Current graphite production methods are fundamentally flawed: natural graphite mining involves environmentally destructive practices and hazardous chemical processing with hydrofluoric acid [3], while synthetic graphite production requires energy-intensive heating to 3000°C for extended periods using petroleum-derived feedstocks. Both methods result in high costs ($7-12/kg), lengthy production timelines (months from feedstock to finished product), severe environmental impacts (16-20 tons of CO₂ emissions per ton of graphite) [4], and complete dependence on vulnerable global supply chains.

Homeostasis has developed a revolutionary solution: converting CO₂ emissions directly into high-quality graphite through our proprietary molten carbonate electrolysis technology. Our process creates domestic, sustainable graphite supply with faster production times, lower costs, and dramatically reduced environmental impact. By operating at temperatures below 800°C with waste CO₂ as feedstock, we're positioned to deliver advanced graphite at meaningfully lower prices while strengthening domestic supply chains and turning industrial emissions into valuable products.

The Critical Materials Crisis

Global graphite supply outlook by International Energy Agency [6]

1. Supply Chain Vulnerability & National Security Risk

The United States faces a severe national security risk due to its near-complete dependence on foreign sources for graphite, a material essential to lithium-ion batteries and therefore critical to the clean energy transition. According to the latest data, China produces over 80% of the world's graphite and processes more than 90% of the world's graphite into the material used in virtually all EV battery anodes [5]. This creates a precarious supply situation at a time when demand is surging.

This vulnerability cannot be overstated: graphite is classified as a critical material by the U.S. government due to both its economic importance and supply risk. A single 40 GWh/year battery manufacturing facility (like those being built across North America) requires more graphite than the entire current North American production capacity combined. With export restrictions imposed by China in late 2023 [5], the security of this supply chain is increasingly in question.