Aepnus Technology

🏭 Milestone: First Pilot Shipped! 🚀 In September, our first pilot-scale system has officially been shipped to a facility in Becancour, Quebec, for on-site demonstrations! 🔬✨ This project, supported by a $1M grant from the Quebec government, is part of an 18-month initiative to pilot our technology alongside key players in the battery ecosystem. 🔋 In partnership with CNETE, a top Canadian electrochemistry research center, we’ll be working with a consortium of Quebec-based prospective customers to validate our technology. The goal? To push our system to over 1000 hours of continuous operation, further proving its real-world impact and scalability. 💪 A huge shoutout to Materials Research LLC and Anoop Nagar for their exceptional work in helping us reach our critical milestone of 100 hours of continuous operation. ✅ This achievement paved the way for the upcoming Becancour pilot, where we’ll aim for even longer operation times and third-party validation of our technology. We’re excited to collaborate with our partners in Quebec and look forward to the results that will guide our journey toward scaling and commercialization. 📈 Stay tuned for updates as we continue advancing towards a more sustainable future! 🌍🔋 Alamine Sallah, Garrett Pohlman, Lukas Hackl, Bilen Akuzum #SodiumSulfate #Circularity #Electrification #ReagentChemicals #CNETE

🏭 Milestone: First Pilot Shipped! 🚀 In September, our first pilot-scale system has officially been shipped to a facility in Becancour, Quebec, for on-site demonstrations! 🔬✨ This project, supported by a $1M grant from the Quebec government, is part of an 18-month initiative to pilot our technology alongside key players in the battery ecosystem. 🔋 In partnership with CNETE, a top Canadian electrochemistry research center, we’ll be working with a consortium of Quebec-based prospective customers to validate our technology. The goal? To push our system to over 1000 hours of continuous operation, further proving its real-world impact and scalability. 💪 A huge shoutout to Materials Research LLC and Anoop Nagar for their exceptional work in helping us reach our critical milestone of 100 hours of continuous operation. ✅ This achievement paved the way for the upcoming Becancour pilot, where we’ll aim for even longer operation times and third-party validation of our technology. We’re excited to collaborate with our partners in Quebec and look forward to the results that will guide our journey toward scaling and commercialization. 📈 Stay tuned for updates as we continue advancing towards a more sustainable future! 🌍🔋 Alamine Sallah, Garrett Pohlman, Lukas Hackl, Bilen Akuzum #SodiumSulfate #Circularity #Electrification #ReagentChemicals #CNETE

The word is out on the sodium sulfate waste problem! Our founders, Lukas Hackl and Bilen Akuzum, began their founder journey with the aim of extracting lithium salts from brine. However, through extensive customer discovery, they realized that the sodium sulfate waste problem was a much larger issue for the industry. This led to the birth of Aepnus Technology, a company that’s dead-focused on developing end-to-end recycling solutions for sodium sulfate. In parallel, they are working tirelessly towards raising global awareness on this issue. The boom in battery manufacturing has had significant impacts on the critical mineral and reagent chemical supply chains. Most cathode manufacturing processes consume significant amounts of reagents and lead to the production of the by-product sodium sulfate waste which is now outpacing the demand for sodium sulfate in existing markets. This cycle is leading to excess sodium sulfate waste for which there is currently no environmentally suitable management solution. Now, this problem is squarely in the spotlight with Worley and C&EN publishing articles which describe the issue that we have been working to solve. C&EN provides an overview of the problem (Link 1 below) with some high level solutions, including mention of Aepnus’ salt splitting electrolyzers. Worley dives deeper into the solutions available (Link 2 below) to battery component manufacturers, many of which are also available to other producers of by-product sodium sulfate. If sodium sulfate disposal is an issue you are facing, we would love to get in touch with you. Please feel free to send us a message or respond to this post and we will get back to you. Links to Articles: C&EN article - https://lnkd.in/dD8gQv75 Worley article - https://lnkd.in/ebiQmJB5 #SodiumSulfate #Circularity #Electrification #Chemicals

⚡ Join Aepnus Technology as Director of Business Development! ⚡ Are you passionate about driving the future of sustainable technology and creating real impact? Ready to roll up your sleeves and be part of something big? Join us at Aepnus and help us shape a cleaner, greener future! 🌍 As Director of Business Development, you’ll collaborate directly with our CEO to build strategic partnerships in the battery recycling, chemicals, and mining industries. You’ll be key in driving growth, creating data-driven strategies, and aligning customer needs with our breakthrough technology. If you’re a hands-on leader with an entrepreneurial spirit, this is your chance to have a direct impact on the future of climate tech. 📍 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Find out more and apply here - https://lnkd.in/e-Jbu4dy

🤵♂️ Learning Update 🤵♂️ Last week our CEO, Lukas Hackl, gave a talk on salt-splitting electrolyzers and their potential for battery waste valorization at the 7th Annual NaatBatt Lithium Battery Recycling Workshop in Montreal, Canada. NAATBatt International is the trade association for advanced battery technology in North America. The annual workshop focused on the opportunities and challenges of creating circularity in the supply chain of lithium-based batteries. Here some of the learnings that were shared at this session: 1. The slowdown in EV demand is creating ripple effects across the recycling industry as there just is not enough feedstock to be recycled. In fact, what is being recycled right now are production scraps rather than end of life cells. 2. Margins for recyclers are generally very thin and with prices for most metals having dropped significantly in the last 6 months, it’s even harder to be economical . This creates more pressure to improve operational efficiency. 3. There doesn’t seem to be a good solution to effectively recycle LFP batteries in the short term. This battery chemistry is becoming a bigger and bigger share of total battery production compared to NMC, creating a situation in which waste is likely to increase for the sector as a whole. It seems that Aepnus is well positioned to partner with pCAM manufacturers and recyclers to close their chemical supply chain loops while improving their process economics. We are always open to having a discussion with industry professionals. Feel free to reach out if you would like to learn more about this discussion. #circularity #electrification #sodiumsulfate #causticsoda #sulfuricacid

🎉 CELEBRATION TIME!! 🎉 We are immensely proud to announce that we have won the 2024 WMF Start Up Grand Prix at the WORLD MATERIALS FORUM in Paris. The focus of this year’s Forum was “Risky DeepTech and Social Acceptability: The Winning Pair”. This theme aligns well with our mission of developing a breakthrough tech in chemical supply chains, providing a socially acceptable chemical waste recycling solution for manufacturers globally. The WMF Start Up challenge aims to provide a global platform for innovative companies to present their technologies and contribute to shaping the future of materials science. It recognizes businesses that have a sizable impact on the use of materials (smarter, less and longer) and a demonstrated breakthrough with new materials or new processes. Aepnus was chosen from among 13 pioneering startups innovating in the materials space. We received the 50,000-euro prize to continue developing our salt splitting electrolyzers which will be used to valorize sulfate-based waste streams by providing manufacturers with a reliable source of chemical reagents. Our vision is to create a fully circular chemical supply chain for our customers with improved supply reliability and price predictability. We would like to thank the jurors Victoire de Margerie, Shirley Meng, Bronwyn Fox, Ilse Henne, Martina Merz, Tadeu Carneiro, Hartwig Michels, Bernard Pinatel, Gervais Jacques, stephane Mangin, Alberto Salleo, Nick Stanage, Karim Zaghib, and Laurent Frescaline for this honor. It is both comforting and humbling to receive validation from industry experts of this caliber, and the confidence that it instils will carry us far in our journey. We would also like to congratulate al of the other nominees in this process. Our planet is in good hands with all of you at the helm. Lukas Hackl, Bilen Akuzum, Ph.D. #WorldMaterialsForum #WMF2024 #Circularity #Electrification #Chemicals #MaterialsScience

Exciting news! Excited about the opportunity that this presents for us.

🗼 We’re heading to Paris! 🗼 Aepnus Technology has been invited to the prestigious WORLD MATERIALS FORUM (WMF) in Paris on July 11, 2024. This event is renowned for bringing together leading politicians, academics, and industrialists from around the globe to exchange visions and experiences on critical issues related to materials usage and sustainability. Being 1 of only 10 startups selected to attend is a testament to our commitment to innovation and excellence. Congratulations to the other 9 startups that have been invited – we are excited to collaborate and learn from such a distinguished group of peers! We would especially like to congratulate our fellow Activate companies who have also been invited along with us (Found Energy, Osmoses, Sunchem, Tyfast) This year's theme, "Risky DeepTech and Social Acceptability: the Winning Pair," promises to deliver thought-provoking discussions and drive forward-thinking solutions. A special thank you to Victoire de Margerie, Philippe Varin, and the entire WMF selection committee for recognizing our potential and granting us this extraordinary honor. Your support and belief in our mission inspire us to continue pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the realm of materials technology. Looking forward to an enlightening and impactful day of discussion! Lukas Hackl, Bilen Akuzum, Ph.D. #WorldMaterialsForum #WMF2024 #Circularity #Electrification #Chemicals #MaterialsScience

WE DID IT! We have successfully raised an $8 million seed round led by Clean Energy Ventures! This milestone is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and innovative spirit of our incredible team. A heartfelt thank you to our amazing investors (Voyager Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Impact Science Ventures, MUUS Climate Partners, Gravity Climate Fund, and NEXTFAB STUDIOS LLC) for believing in our vision and supporting our journey. Your support will be invaluable as we work to build a waste-free and carbon-free future for chemical manufacturing. This funding will empower us to: 🚀 Ramp up our operations to commercial scale 🚀 Expand our talented team with greater expertise and diversity 🚀 Expand our technology to service new markets Stay tuned for more updates and join us on this exciting journey. Here's to a bright, sustainable future ahead! You can read more about us in the following publications: Clean Energy Ventures - https://lnkd.in/dD-MfNYT Tech Crunch - https://lnkd.in/eEKsViKB Latitude Media - https://lnkd.in/gbg92YKT Impact Alpha - https://lnkd.in/dReGqUbX Heatmap - https://lnkd.in/dGmr-g2Z Axios - https://lnkd.in/dJ-R4nJW Lukas Hackl, Bilen Akuzum, Ph.D., Daniel Goldman, Ted Dillon, Mallika Gummalla, Bracha Halaf, Zafrir Yoeli, Sarah Sclarsic, Sierra Peterson, Matthew Blain, Christina Chang, Clea Kolster, PhD, Clay Dumas, Robert Ethier, Benjamin Wolkon, Logan Grizzel, Evan Malone, Todor Raykov #circularity #electrification #chemicals #growth