The 1,031th Meeting of the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Board mtg: 4:30 – 5:30
Reception: 5:30 – 6: 30
Dinner: 6:30 – 7:45
Presentation: 8:00 – 9:00
Dr. Patrick Gordon, Chair, presiding
Dr. Megan O’Connor, co-founder and CEO of Nth Cycle, presenting
Megan O’Connor for Nth Cycle
Eventbrite Registration: https://september2024nesacsmeeting.eventbrite.com/
Abstract:
Title: Journey from Chemist to Entrepreneur
CONTEXT
Without critical metals, there can be no clean-energy transition and no carbon-free economy. From electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines, to achieving net zero targets and energy independence. It all hangs in the balance.
It will take more than batteries. More than lithium and cobalt. We need copper. We need dysprosium and other rare earth elements. The future we imagine depends on the full spectrum of critical metals. And using them depends on refining.
PROBLEM
85% of the world’s critical metals are refined in China.
The United States and Europe have the resources needed for the energy transition, but with virtually no refining capability, those materials are sent to China, converted into critical metals there, and imported back. That reliance creates more than a bottleneck. It’s a threat to our economy, national security, and environment.
Adopting China’s model isn’t the answer.
Multiple industries are facing an urgent shortage of critical metals, but building large domestic refining plants to replace those in China will take years of permitting and billions of dollars. Once operational, they’ll only support recycler’s scrap metal, for one industry, at a fixed volume. And because they’re being built in remote locations, end-of-life material will still travel long-distances to be converted into critical metals. And mined ore will still have to be shipped and converted overseas.
SOLUTION
Nth Cycle isn’t building a refining plant. It built a refining system.
Megan O’Connor saw a way forward. By partnering with recyclers, manufacturers, and miners, Nth Cycle’s revolutionary Oyster unit can be installed on-site at their facility to transform their end-of-life batteries, scrap metal, or mined ore into universally-accepted final products for EVs, renewable energy, the electric grid, and beyond.
Electro-Extraction – A Patented Breakthrough
Nth Cycle’s patented electro-extraction is at the heart of the Oyster. Unlike traditional methods, it produces the same chemicals needed to refine metals using electricity – not fossil fuels. And it’s entirely modular and scalable, able to target, separate and recover a specific critical metal or group of critical metals, adjust to changing volumes, and support multiple clean-energy markets right now. This technical advancement represents an historic milestone for the country and the industry, closing the largest gap in the domestic clean-energy supply chain.
Biography:
Megan O’Connor, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Nth Cycle, a pioneering metal refining
company revolutionizing the clean energy transition. Under her leadership, Nth Cycle has
developed cutting-edge technology that facilitates a sustainable, domestic production of critical
metals, ensuring a cleaner and more efficient supply chain.
Drawing upon her background in environmental chemistry, Dr. O’Connor has played a pivotal
role in advancing electro-extraction technology, which is now being commercialized by her team
at Nth Cycle. Dr. O’Connor earned her doctorate in environmental engineering from Duke
University and was a visiting researcher at Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry and
Green Engineering. She’s been recognized by Forbes in its “30 under 30” energy list in 2019
and the Grist50 list in 2022.
After founding Nth Cycle in 2017, Dr. O’Connor was an Entrepreneurial Fellow in the
Department of Energy’s Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Based in Boston, Nth Cycle has secured over $60 million in investments from Clean Energy
Ventures, VoLo Earth Ventures, MassMutual through the MM Catalyst Fund I, Caterpillar
Venture Capital Inc. and Elemental Excelerator. Nth Cycle has been awarded grants from the
U.S. Department of Energy and The National Science Foundation. In 2023, Nth Cycle was
named a Bloomberg New Energy Finance Pioneer in the “Sustainable Metals and Materials for
an Electrified Future” category.
