CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — SiTration (www.sitration.com), the MIT spinoff pioneering new separation processes for materials extraction, today announced it has raised $2.35 million in pre-seed funding led by Azolla Ventures with participation from the MIT-affiliated E14 Fund. The funding will enable SiTration to accelerate hiring and ramp up development of its breakthrough technology for the recovery of critical materials in the lithium-ion battery recycling process.
SiTration has pioneered a new filtration membrane technology that can potentially eliminate the need for energy- and resource-intensive chemical and thermal separation methods used for the extraction of materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel from recycled electric vehicle batteries. Built upon years of R&D at MIT, SiTration’s patented conductive membrane technology can reduce the energy needed for materials extraction by as much as 10 times, while enabling a recovery yield over 95 percent.
“By replacing the chemical and thermal separation methods used in battery recycling today with an electrified approach, SiTration is unlocking ultra-efficient recovery of materials foundational to a more sustainable future,” said Brendan Smith, co-founder and CEO of SiTration, who invented the technology during his PhD research at MIT and launched SiTration as an Activate Fellow. “Our vision is to minimize impact and maximize circularity in the life cycle of critical materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. Our team could not be more excited to partner with Azolla Ventures and E14 Fund to realize this mission.”