DALLAS — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) celebrated the launch of the Accelerator for Supply Chain, Economy and National Development (ASCEND) initiative at an event hosted by Momentum Technologies at their state-of-the-art recycling facility. ASCEND is a collaborative initiative focused on strengthening U.S. capabilities to recover, process and recycle critical materials from end-of-life electronics like phones, laptops and hard drives.
ASCEND brings together industry, investors and technical experts at DOE National Laboratories to identify barriers and opportunities in the U.S. critical materials supply chain and develop a strategic investment roadmap for recycling and recovering end-of-life electronics.
Input from the launch will inform a techno-economic analysis, an assessment of supply chain gaps and a road map of recommendations intended to guide future DOE investments and technical assistance activities.
Critical materials, such as cobalt, lanthanides and rare earth elements, are essential to modern life for their uses in everything from household electronics to advanced defense systems. Due to their unique properties, they are difficult to replace or substitute with other materials. The U.S. has deposits of nearly all critical materials, but the nation’s mining and processing capabilities cannot meet its growing demand. End-of-life electronics such as hard drives, computers and medical devices contain many of these materials, but currently most are not recovered in the U.S.
A majority of critical materials extraction and processing happen overseas, much of it in China. This reliance on foreign sources leaves the U.S. vulnerable to supply chain disruption and has the potential to affect economic competitiveness and national security. ASCEND aims to address these issues by strengthening domestic critical materials recovery, processing and recycling capabilities.
“Technology alone won’t improve recycling rates,” said Shannon Bragg-Sitton, associate laboratory director for Energy and Environment Science and Technology at Idaho National Laboratory. “Progress depends on aligning stakeholders, policies, markets and infrastructure. ASCEND creates a forum for that alignment and can help organizations work through the complexity, accelerate collaboration and strengthen the e-recycling value chain.”
The ASCEND launch convened stakeholders from every step of the critical materials supply chain, including processors, refiners, manufacturers, companies that handle end-of-life electronics, investors, government leaders and national laboratory experts. Attendees toured Momentum Technologies’ facilities and conducted roundtable discussions about supply chain vulnerabilities, technology barriers, investment risks and opportunities to accelerate commercialization.
“Modern life runs on critical minerals,” said Mahesh Konduru, CEO of Momentum Technologies. “Phones, medical devices, electric vehicles and defense systems all need them. Only a fraction of critical minerals are recycled today. We’re giving new life to yesterday’s batteries and magnets to help the United States get the minerals it needs. We’re excited about the ASCEND collaboration because ideas from its launch will help us inform the U.S. Department of Energy by weighing costs, pinpointing gaps and recommending next steps.”
ASCEND is led by INL, co-led by the National Laboratory of the Rockies and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and funded by the DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office.
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About Momentum Technologies
Based in Carrollton, Texas, Momentum Technologies is a critical minerals processing company that has developed patented Membrane Solvent Extraction (MSX) technology in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. MSX recovers and separates high-purity Rare Earth Elements, including light and heavy REEs such as Neodymium, Dysprosium, and Terbium, as well as battery materials including Lithium, Nickel, and Cobalt, from both primary feedstocks such as mined ore and mining byproducts, and secondary feedstocks such as lithium-ion battery black mass, magnet swarf, and industrial waste streams. The technology operates at significantly lower capital and operating costs than conventional processing methods and scales through replication of modular units. Momentum has been named to TIME’s World’s Top GreenTech Companies 2026 list and TIME’s America’s Top GreenTech Companies lists in 2025 and 2026. For more information, please visit momentum.technology.
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